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[Work Plan]
Secretariat for Political Affairs
1. Activities Assigned
The Program assigns the following seven specific activities
to the Secretariat for Political Affairs and its
departments:
• Further studies on comparative
legislation related to the political participation of
migrants in the democratic systems of their countries of
origin and host countries.
• Generate, promote, and
disseminate information regarding the legal, political, and
practical implications of the political participation of
migrants in their countries of origin for governments,
migrant organizations, and electoral administrations, among
others.
• Offer technical assistance in
institution-building to election authorities and civil
electoral registries, on institutional modernization,
updating of their countries’ electoral rolls, and the
issuance of documents necessary for migrants to participate
in the electoral processes of their countries of origin.
• Offer technical assistance to
legislatures that so request along with advice to
parliamentary commissions on migration matters, including
advice to states interested in the harmonization of
migration legislation.
• Provide training to migrants in
order to promote their participation in democratic
processes.
• Promote democratic culture
through formal and nonformal education, stressing the need
for tolerance and solidarity, in accordance with the
characteristics of each country.
• Facilitate multiparty and
multisectoral discussions within political parties on the
human rights of migrants and their families.
2. Activities Carried Out:
• During the past year, the
Secretariat for Political Affairs, through the Department
for the Promotion of Democracy (DPD), has continued its
compilation of information on the challenges of establishing
a voting system abroad, especially as regards voter
registration, political participation, and logistical and
financial costs. Within the Electoral Technical Assistance
(ETA) programs, the DPD has promoted the strengthening of
processes for identifying and registering citizens who live
abroad. The efforts by the DPD during 2006 regarding
compliance with the mandates of the “Inter-American Program
for the Promotion of the Human Rights of Migrants, Including
Migrant Workers and Their Families” centered mainly on the
possibility of migrants exercising their right to vote by
voting abroad.
• As part of the Electoral
Technical Assistance (ETA) program in Ecuador, the DPD
collaborated with the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of that
country so that Ecuadorians who live abroad could vote in
the presidential elections in October (first round) and
November (second round) 2006. They prepared and established
the Systems for Pre-registration and the Printing of
Registration Ledgers. During the entire registration period,
there was constant and effective monitoring of applications.
In addition, ongoing statistical reports were issued on the
number of registered voters, by country and by consulate.
The number of registered voters at the close of the
registration process was 141,407. Another Web application
for the Registration of Volunteer Members of the Overseas
Ballot Reception Boards was created so that consulates could
download the lists of registered voters, members of the
boards, and their respective appointments. At the end of the
process, 1,548 citizens had registered as Volunteer Members
of the Overseas Ballot Reception Boards. The consultation
for the Electoral Register for Voters Domiciled Abroad was
disseminated over the Internet and from CDs containing
several security devices to safeguard the integrity of the
database of the citizens registered abroad (encrypted
citizen data). Finally, on the days of the election, the
results of the overseas ballot were consolidated with the
results of the Electoral Provincial Tribunals.
3. Activities Being Planned
• The constant migration of
citizens of the countries of the Hemisphere, who move from
one location to another for different reasons, including,
inter alia, unemployment, violence, lack of security, and
the search for better opportunities, have made migration one
of the most important issues in Latin America. Many of these
migrants, a large number of whom contribute in a significant
way to the economies of their countries of origin through
remittances, have demanded the opportunity to exercise their
national political rights by voting abroad. Between 2005 and
2006, Honduras, Mexico, and Ecuador joined the long list of
countries that have taken measures to make it possible for
citizens living abroad to vote. Although it is a topic of
common concern in the region, the possibility of exercising
the right to vote abroad is still somewhat complex and
continues to be polemical in countries where levels of
emigration are high, so that a significant percentage of
potential voters live overseas. Additionally, absentee
voting continues to be costly (in financial terms) and the
results of it implementation, in many cases, have not been
large enough to justify that cost. For example, in the case
of absentee voting for the 2005 Presidential elections in
Honduras, of 10, 260 voters registered abroad only 4,541
voted. This is probably related to the illegal status of
many immigrants, which makes it difficult for them to
exercise their right to vote even when there is the
possibility of doing so.
• It is precisely for these
reasons that the Department for the Promotion of Democracy
considers it opportune to carry out comparative studies and
exchanges of experiences related to absentee voting in
countries of the region. This will permit the identification
of lessons learnt, future challenges, and successful
practices. Carrying out a comparative study of legislation
on absentee voting will allow a comprehensive assessment of
the situation in the Hemisphere and the holding of a seminar
on the experience of different countries would be the ideal
forum for generating exchanges on this issue. Finally, as
part of the initiatives of the Electoral Technical
Assistance (ETA) of the Organization, it would be fitting to
offer electoral organizations of the countries that allow
absentee voting dissemination and information campaigns to
migrants to increase their awareness on the possibility of
exercising their right to vote thereby promoting migrant
participation in democratic processes. The DPD also thinks
it is the right time to reinforce its electoral observation
exercises with monitoring of the overseas voting process in
those countries that so request. In 2005 the EOM which
monitored the Presidential Referendum in Venezuela also
observed the voting by Venezuelans living overseas (in the
United States). Although there were requests in 2006 by the
Ecuadorian and Peruvian authorities to extend the electoral
monitoring to overseas voting, it did not in fact
materialize within the framework of the OAS EOMs in those
countries, due the fact that the exercise required
additional financial and logistical resources to those that
were available in each of those two cases.
• Finally, it is worth
emphasizing that the DPD now has at its disposal a technical
instrument to serve the countries of the region, developed
on the basis of the technical assistance provided to the
Ecuadorean SET, that makes voting abroad feasible. This
instrument now pertains to the OAS and is at the disposal of
any member states requesting it.
4. Calendar
• The DPD hopes to embark on
research for the comparative study of legislation for
introducing absentee voting for countries in the region in
second quarter 2007, subject to the availability of the
necessary financial resources. At the same time, hopefully
by third quarter 2007 – also subject to funding – it will be
possible to organize the seminar to share experiences of
overseas voting among countries of the region. The outcomes
from that seminar will provide further input for the study,
which the DPD hope to publish and disseminate extensively in
the last quarter of the year.
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