E-059/00
March 21, 2000

PHOTO

OAS SIGNS AGREEMENT FOR ELECTORAL OBSERVATION MISSION TO DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

 

The government of the Dominican Republic signed an agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS) on Tuesday for the Washington-based Organization to send a mission to observe that country's May 16 presidential elections.

Signing the agreement with Secretary General César Gaviria, Dominican Republic Ambassador Flavio Darío Espinal asserted the Observation Mission's role as "helping to make electoral institutions and the electoral process itself more transparent and while boosting confidence in them."

Espinal added that the OAS' team of monitors was "extremely important to the consolidation of the electoral institutions, the success of the elections and to the consolidation of democracy in the Dominican Republic."

The OAS Electoral Observation Mission will be headed by Santiago Murray, special advisor to the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy. The team of 35 observers from various countries will operate from nine subregional offices, with headquarters in Santo Domingo. Underwritten with financial support from the United States, the OAS Mission is being sent at the request of the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández.

Santiago Murray and Cristina Tomassoni will travel to the Dominican Republic at month’s-end to sign an agreement with the Chairman of the Central Elections Board, covering procedures. They will also begin meeting with the candidates and representatives of churches, non-governmental organizations and the media, among other groups.

The OAS observed elections in the Dominican Republic in 1966, 1978, 1990, 1994 and 1996.

 

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