The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and the Permanent Representative of Bolivia to the Organization, Ambassador José Enrique Pinelo Navarro, today signed an agreement on the privileges and immunities of the overseers to participate in the OAS Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) for the elections for Municipal and Regional authorities that will take place in Bolivia on April 4, and whose Chief of Mission will be Panamanian ex-President Arístides Royo.

Secretary General Insulza highlighted the importance of the agreement and asserted that “we are very happy to participate in this new event, whose main protagonist is the Bolivian people, a people that has always demonstrated a civic will and disposition worthy of the highest recognition.”

“We are fully certain that the election of regional and local authorities will have the same quality and credibility among the Bolivian people and the entire world as the presidential and parliamentary elections did.”

Ambassador Pinelo celebrated the agreement by adding that “the Bolivian government is grateful to the Organization for its support in this second-to-last electoral process that we will soon develop. We know that the OAS will show its capabilities yet again and will allow Bolivia to show its democratic capability to the hemisphere and the world.”

Doctor Royo will begin a visit to Bolivia on Tuesday, March 23, to formally establish the Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) and sign agreements to set the conditions for the observation. During his visit, he will attend various meetings with electoral, political and governmental authorities, as well as with representatives of the international community.

For the Regional and Municipal elections, the EOM plans to disseminate observers in the nine departments of the Bolivian territory, for the purpose of following the development of the organization and administration of elections.

Also present at the ceremony, which was held in the office of the Secretary General at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, were the Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, Albert Ramdin, the President of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica, Ambassador José Enrique Castillo Barrantes, and the Secretary for Political Affairs of the OAS, Víctor Rico.

Photographs of the event will be posted here.

For more information please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org

Reference: E-081/10