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Chief of the OAS Electoral Mission Arrives in Ecuador

  February 11, 2013

The Chief of the Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (EOM/OAS) in Ecuador, Rafael Alburquerque, will arrive in Quito this afternoon to lead observation tasks performed by the technical team deployed in Ecuador, which began its work on January 28 ahead of the presidential elections on Sunday. On this occasion, the head of the EOM/OAS will meet with electoral and governmental authorities, political leaders, representatives of civil society and the diplomatic community.

The OAS Mission which, with the arrival of the last contingent this week totals 51 technicians and observers from 21 countries, will be present in 18 of the country’s 24 provinces. This will be the first time an Electoral Observation Mission of the OAS observes the vote of Ecuadorians abroad. For this work, the EOM/OAS will have 11 observers in Madrid, Spain, where there are the largest number of Ecuadorians living abroad.

The team of the EOM/OAS will carry out direct observation of the process in areas such as the legal context, electoral organization and technology, political participation of women and men, and political financing, among other issues. Five technicians from the EOM/OAS were present in the vote transmission test carried out last weekend.

After the elections, the EOM/OAS will present its findings and recommendations to the Permanent Council of the organization. Moreover, it will visit the country, post mission, to hold meetings with different actors involved in order to follow up on the observations.

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

Reference: E-042/13