Electoral Observation Missions watch over transparency and citizen participation

On December 6, 2009, an Electoral Observation Mission from the Organization of American States (OAS) will participate in the general elections of Bolivia. This will be the sixth mission the OAS deploys to the South American country.

Since its creation,the OAS Electoral Observation Missions (MOE/OAS for its Spanish acronym) have become a key instrument in the promotion and defense of democracy in the region. These missions became even more relevant with the transition of a significant number of countries from authoritarian regimes to democratic systems of government since the mid-1980s. As such, for more than 45 years the OAS has participated as observer in more than 140 electoral processes, including general, presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections as well as referendums.

The OAS Missions were created with the purpose of contributing towards the guaranteeing of integrity, impartiality and accountability in the electoral process, and to strengthen the credibility of democratic institutions. The missions help promote the recognition of political rights, particularly of the rights of citizens to elect and be elected in an inclusive, free and transparent way.

The adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (CDI) in September 2001 represented an important step for electoral democracy and became one of the main pillars in the work of the Missions that have been present in more than 20 nations. In its fifth chapter the CDI assigns an essential value to electoral democracy and highlights the importance of the MOE as instruments that contribute to democratic consolidation.

The presence of a hemispheric body like the OAS in the electoral process of its member states has gained great importance in the last decades, mainly in the Caribbean and of South and Central American countries. Many consider that the evolution of the Missions of Electoral Observation reflects the progress achieved by the democratic governments of the region.

“Generally speaking we have very good elections in the hemisphere,” said Pablo Gutiérrez, Director of the OAS Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation, referring to the evolution of the democratic process. “We can talk about certain waves of reform in the hemisphere, starting in the 60’s when the missions went to elections that were evidently irregular and in such cases the work of the missions was rather symbolic. Later came the period of military dictatorships when, if missions were ever sent they did not leave a trace. With the recovery of democracy, the role of the OAS with respect to the electoral process was always closely associated with the rebuilding of electoral institutionality. Now we are in a completely different stage and we have, generally speaking, elections of good quality, as well as a great capacity to identify fallacies and react accordingly to them.”

The success that the MOE/OAS has achieved has been evident not only in the warm reception that observers and delegates have received in the countries, but also more formally through awards such as the one earned in 2008 from the Paraguayan daily newspaper Última Hora, that recognized the “Outstanding Leader” (Protagonista Destacado) “for its work of supervision of the General Elections of April 20, 2008, and its support in the peaceful transfer of power.”

How do the OAS Electoral Observation Missions work?

An Electoral Observation Mission is made up of three structures: The base group headed by a chief of mission; a structure at the national level led by regional coordinators located in each department, region or province of the country; and the base observers, who are assigned to a smaller locality within the provinces or regions of the country. It is the latter who is charged with observation in situ, from the opening to the closing of the voting sites.

The size of a mission is determined through a statistical sample based on the number of locales and voters in a country. The results that the MOE/OAS have obtained are measured with the use of a methodology of electoral observation the OAS created two years ago.

In this context, the work of the OAS Secretariat for Political Affairs in charge of the Missions, is focused on the organization, implementation and follow-up of those missions. During periods of elections its role involves coordinating activities at the national, regional and hemispheric levels with electoral authorities, political parties and civil society representatives.

“Basically, we extracted from the Democratic Charter and from other legal instruments linked to the Organization the essential elements of an electoral process and we came up with a sort of survey,” explained Gutiérrez, who also stated that “we do not make subjective evaluations but rather we use very precise methodological instruments that allow us to evaluate how the electoral process was conducted.”

After each MOE, the Chief of Mission presents to the electoral authorities of the country and to the OAS member states a summary of the activities carried out and a series of recommendations for the purpose of contributing to the improvement of the country’s electoral laws. “Our reports contain recommendations to further improve the process,” said Gutiérrez, who added that “the elections that rely on the presence of OAS observers have seen concrete results.”

An example of this was the Observation Mission that was present during the elections of El Salvador in January and March, 2009. The recommendations made by the MOE with respect to the privacy of the polling booth or the opening time of the voting centers have already been implemented, and it is believed they will contribute to greater success in future electoral processes.

Regarding the general elections and autonomous referendum of Bolivia on December 6th, the MOE/OAS started its formal activities last November 9th, when the Chief of Mission, the Colombian governor Horacio Serpa, visited the country to hold interviews and meetings with electoral, political, governmental authorities and representatives of the international community. On this opportunity, the OAS will deploy 127 electoral observers in the 9 departments of the Bolivian territory for the purpose of following the development of the administration and organization of the elections as well as of the political campaign.

November 30, 2009

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