Electoral Observation Missions: An Instrument To Reinforce The Democratic Institution.

• Author: Montecinos, Claudia Andrea
• Position: Essay

It is nine o'clock in the morning in Asunción, the capital city of Paraguay. A group of professionals and college students from different countries are assembled together in a hotel in the center of the city. Their main focus of attention is a map of the country full of red flags pins indicating the centers they will be heading to at the end of the meeting. They are all international observers and participate in the Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) of the Organization of the American States (OAS) that began a few weeks earlier.

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The General Coordinator for the OAS/EOM gives the last instructions and ends the meeting with a cheery "good luck to all, we will be in contact soon." Dressed in jeans, polo shirts, walking shoes and coffee colored vests with the OAS initials and their id's hanging from the neck--for easy identification among the crowd--the observers leave for their assigned posts, which in this case includes all of Paraguay.

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The observers will take notes on the events of the day. Their main mission is to observe the development of the elections in reference to the rules and regulations of the country host, and to later write an objective and detailed report.

"More and more the EOMs reflect the true meaning of one of the central lines of action of our Organization, which is to reinforce the institution of democracy in our region," explains OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza. The Secretary General emphasizes the importance of these missions adding that "for us, improving the electoral system means to observe the elections in situ , following the process, updating technology, using the experience to identify the good and the bad, to correct and improve the electoral practices in the countries, in conjunction with the local authorities. This is what we have been doing during these past years, and with very positive results."

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The experience in Paraguay is not unique; it is one of many electoral observation missions the OAS has sent to over twenty countries in the hemisphere. Costa Rica, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Suriname, Colombia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Bolivia, Peru and Haiti are some recent examples. Whether they are presidential, parliamentary, local or municipal, including intraparty elections, all elections contribute unique situations that are worth studying and analyzing.

"The Electoral Observion Missions...