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Chief of OAS Mission Arrives in Nicaragua Ahead of Next Sunday's Municipal Elections

  October 29, 2017

The Chief of the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (EOM/OAS) to the municipal elections in Nicaragua, Wilfredo Penco, arrived today in Managua. He will lead a team of 60 experts and international observers that will deploy across the country to observe the development of the electoral process and the voting on November 5.

The experts of the core group also began to arrive in the country this Sunday. They will carry out a substantial and thorough analysis of the process in terms of electoral organization, electoral registry, electoral technology, gender, participation of indigenous peoples and afrodescendents, campaign financing, political parties and electoral justice.

Regional coordinators and observers will join the team during the first half of the week. After receiving training in Managua, they will deploy to the 15 departments and two autonomous regions of the country. They will observe the preparations of the electoral process in the field and will hold meetings with electoral authorities, political parties and civil society at the local level. On election day, they will visit voting centers to observe the voting, from the opening of the polls until the counting and transmission of results. 

The information gathered in the field and through the technical meetings held by the experts will be transmitted to the Chief of Mission. In Managua, the Chief of Mission will resume meetings with electoral and government authorities, political parties, candidates, and representatives of civil society.

This will be the fourteenth election the OAS observes in Nicaragua.

The EOM/OAS expresses its gratitude for the financial contributions of Argentina, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Korea and Switzerland that added to the contributions already made by Chile, Honduras, Luxembourg and Spain,  which have made possible the deployment of the Mission.

Reference: E-077/17