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OAS Signs Electoral Cooperation Agreement with Paraguay and the Dominican Republic

The Organization of American States (OAS) signed a tripartite agreement on electoral cooperation with the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE) of Paraguay and the Central Electoral Board of the Dominican Republic (JCE) to implement a new digital system for the transmission of preliminary results in Paraguay.

During the signing ceremony at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, the organization's Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, said that the Electoral Observation Mission of the OAS sent to Paraguay for the constitutional referendum on October 9th, 2011, recommended in its final report "a review of the methodology of the transmission of the pre-count by voice.” The TSJE asked the OAS for its "technical cooperation" to implement a digital system of transmission of preliminary results, said Secretary General Insulza.

The Secretary General added that the Dominican JCE "is recognized at the regional level for its ability to implement new technologies within the area of the organization and conduct of electoral processes, and vote counting technologies, digitization of records and transmission of results." He said the technical electoral cooperation agreement signed thus represents "a great opportunity for horizontal cooperation between two Member States of the OAS."

The leader of the hemispheric organization highlighted that "this project represents an example of the intention of the OAS to provide technical cooperation during the entire election cycle: during the period before the election, during the election-by observation - and during the post electoral stage."

The President of the TSJE of Paraguay, Minister Alberto Ramirez, signed on behalf of his country, thanking the Dominican Republic for its support and the OAS for playing the role of "facilitator" in reaching the agreement. Minister Ramirez expressed his confidence that the process will run in a "flawless," manner, something particularly important for his country given that currently "many governments of the Americas are following closely what happens in Paraguay, particularly our neighboring countries of South America." In addition, the TSJE President stressed his satisfaction with the appointment of the former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias as the Chief of Mission of Electoral Accompaniment and Observation that the OAS will send to Paraguay for the presidential election of April 21, 2013.

Upon signing the agreement on behalf of the Dominican Republic, the President of the JCE, Roberto Rosario Márquez thanked Paraguay and the OAS for the opportunity "to be able to contribute to the strengthening of the democratic institutions of our Americas." "The Dominican Republic, as a country that lives democracy," he said, "has made progress and improved its processes of democratic participation and has learned much from the nations of the Americas – from all of them, including the Republic of Paraguay, and could hardly, at this opportunity to contribute, refuse our participation in a process of such importance" as the one to take place next year in Paraguay.

Present at the signing ceremony were the Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, Ambassador Albert Ramdin, the Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Mexico, Ambassador Joel Hernández, the Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic, Ambassador Roberto Saladin, and the Vice Chair of the TSJE of Paraguay, Juan Manuel Morales.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-376/12