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OAS Presents Report on Municipal Election Observation in Peru

The Chief of Mission of the Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) of the Organization of American States (OAS) that followed the municipal and regional elections of October 3rd in Peru, Miguel Abdón Saguier, today submitted a verbal report to the hemispheric Organization’s Permanent Council on the work conducted during the elections.

The representative of the Secretary General asserted that “the elections were satisfactory,” and highlighted the efforts by electoral authorities “to guarantee a transparent process under conditions of equality for the different parties and candidates.” He noted that there were delays in the opening of the voting tables, that in some cases it was “up to four hours,” and he noted there were some acts of political violence in voting centers. But he emphasized that these events, nevertheless, “did not compromise the electoral process.”

On Election Day, 12,494 regional and local authorities were elected, including 25 regional presidents and vice presidents, 252 regional council members, 1,834 mayors, and 10,358 municipal rectors, involving more than 14,000 candidate lists. Furthermore, the public voted on the Draft Bill to Refund Money from the National Housing Fund (FONAVI) to the workers who contributed to it.

The EOM was composed of 70 observers from 18 OAS Member States and three Observer countries. The base group was made up of electoral experts in the areas of communication, law, political science, information, press and electoral organization.

On the political campaign, the Chief of Mission said that “personal attacks and accusations were observed between the candidates, exacerbated by the role of some of the media and the preferences shown to certain candidacies.” He also reported that the parties did not have the necessary public financing to carry out their campaigns, which is why the EOM “makes a call to guarantee conditions of equality in the contest so as to have a more transparent and equal process.”

During his report, Senator Saguier made a series of recommendations with a view to the next elections, among them: to review the legal timeframes to resolve the “errors”; to regulate public financing; to ensure that the voting tables have enough personnel and can open at the established time; to strengthen information systems in the voting areas as well as their signage; to review the regulation for the location of the greatest number of voting tables possible in the voting centers; to simplify the counting procedures in the voting tables; and to establish a new procedure to resolve the challenges presented in the least amount of time possible.

The Chief of Mission asserted that the electoral authorities are expected to give adequate follow-up to the most important challenges highlighted in matters of electoral organization, registering of candidates, campaign financing, and the resolution of challenges and observations.

The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, thanked the Peruvian Government and its electoral authority for having invited the OAS to participate in the elections and recalled that the role of the electoral missions “is to observe, make suggestions to the national authorities, and to report to this Council. In no case is their role to make determinations.” He added that “the Mission has been very successful and shows an electoral system that, while not perfect, has made much progress in the years we have been working there, thanks to the political will of the Government and people of Peru, their desire to have a system that is the most transparent and participatory possible.”

The Permanent Representative of Peru to the OAS, Ambassador Hugo de Zela, thanked the Chief of Mission for “a very professional job that was of great value to the strenghtening of democracy in my country,” and highlighted the contributions of Canada, the United States, and South Korea, “that made possible the presence of this Mission.”

The Government of Peru requested that the OAS send a Mission of Electoral Observation to the general elections scheduled for April 10.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-541/11