Media Center

Press Release

OAS and El Salvador’s Supreme Electoral Court Sign Cooperation Agreement

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Supreme Electoral Court of El Salvador today signed a Cooperation Agreement at Organization headquarters in Washington, DC. The document was signed by the OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and Judge Eduardo Antonio Urquilla, on behalf of the President of the Electoral Court, Eugenio Chicas Martínez; its objective is to establish the principal lines and mechanisms of cooperation between the two institutions for the purpose of promoting the implementation of electoral programs and projects.

The document establishes a framework for the exchange of information on specialized technical areas; the development and joint sponsorship of professional capacity building and training activities on electoral matters; the sponsorship of internships, meetings, seminars, and workshops; the development of research projects and studies on subjects of mutual interest, including their publication and diffusion; and specialized technical support on areas of fundamental importance for institutional development.

Secretary General Insulza thanked “the trust that the Salvadoran authorities have placed in our Organization with the signing of this agreement,” and added that this tool “is founded on a shared experience that creates trust between us and guarantees its success.”

The head of the Organization highlighted that El Salvador and the OAS have been working for some time on matters of electoral observation, and he recalled that all Member States of the Organization have the “possibility of requesting advice and prior experience in the preparation of electoral processes,” as is established by the Inter-American Democratic Charter. He further emphasized that the organization he directs “is placing more and more weight on supporting the processes of modernization and strengthening of the hemisphere’s electoral bodies, which are key institutions of the democratic system.”

Judge Urquilla, for his part, thanked the OAS for “the support it will give us,” adding that the signing of this agreement “will strengthen the institution of the Supreme Electoral Court in a country that walks along democratic paths.”

Also present at the event were the Alternate Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the OAS, Luis Menendez; the Permanent Representatives of Belize, Nestor Mendez, and Dominica, Hubert J. Charles; the Director of the Department of Electoral Cooperation and Observation of the OAS, Pablo Gutierrez; and Walter Rene Araujo Morales, Julio Eduardo Moreno Niños, and Fernando Argüello Téllez, members of the El Salvador’ Supreme Electoral Court.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-550/11