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OAS EOM Presents Report on Presidential Elections in Mexico and Calls Them "an Example of Commitment to Democracy"

The Chief of the Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) of the Organization of American States (OAS) designated by the General Secretariat for the Mexican federal elections last July 1, César Gaviria, said today that the process was carried out in an "organized and transparent" way, during the presentation of his final report to the Permanent Council of the organization.

"The EOM/OAS congratulates the electoral authorities of Mexico and the country’s citizens for being, once more, an example of commitment to democracy," said the former Colombian President and former Secretary General of the OAS.

Gaviria offered a "special recognition of the efforts of the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) to correct the shortcomings of previous processes," particularly when taking into account the recommendations made by the EOM of the OAS which attended the 2009 legislative elections.

In this regard, he praised the "enormous amount of controls" currently available to the Mexican electoral system, "which has been growing and correcting mistrust and fears over the years," which has made it one of the most reliable and trustworthy in the hemisphere.

Along the same lines, the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, said that "Mexico has built a robust electoral system that would be beneficial for all countries to study and get to know.”

Secretary General Insulza recalled that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first EOM of the OAS, and that the 200th Mission recently took place, confirming that "this is one of the great tasks, one of the central tasks of the OAS, and I hope that we strengthen this process in the coming years." The positive evolution of electoral processes in the region, he added, shows "eminent political progress in the hemisphere on which we should reflect," and invited participants to do so on February 4, which the OAS recently designated as the Day of Electoral Observation.

The leader of the OAS expressly thanked former President Gaviria and his team for their work at the head of the Mission, and congratulated the Mexican government and people on his own behalf and that of the organization for the success of the elections.

IFE President Leonardo Valdés Zurita recognized the work of international observers in the Mexican electoral process, and especially thanked the OAS for its presence "because our democracy is enriched by their participation." He said the entity he leads "highly values ​​each and every one of the relevant recommendations of the EOM. Some of them, those that require a reform of the electoral law, we send to the legislature, other suggestions will help us in the search for best practices."

The EOM for the elections that selected the President of the Republic, 128 senators, 500 federal deputies, 579 local deputies, 873 mayors and 16 heads of delegations, as well as the head of government of the Federal District and six state governors, arrived in the country on June 20 and was made up of 101 people from 26 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

The team, which was funded by Bolivia, Canada, Spain, the United States, Switzerland and Peru, covered the entire country and observed the post-electoral period and the recounting of votes. This was the second time the OAS has deployed an EOM in Mexico, after the federal legislative elections of 2009.

Among the conclusions of the EOM, former President Gaviria stressed that "with one of the largest voter registration lists in the Americas, and with a reach of more than 140,000 polling stations, the Mexican electoral bodies showed once again their high technical and logistical capacity, which was visible throughout the entire electoral process, fully complying with organizational and safety standards."

On this point, the Secretary General of the OAS from 1994 to 2004 explained that the recommendations of the Mission aim to "contribute to the strengthening of the Mexican electoral process." Among them, he highlighted the need to create more effective mechanisms to reduce private contributions to campaigns and to control party spending; increase the number of polling stations and improve their location and accessibility; implement a "zeroing" protocol for the databases of the Results Transmission Program before receiving data; legally exempt from the gender quota those nominations resulting from internal democratic processes; and ensure by law an equal footing for women in the process of nominating party candidates.

Following the report of the EOM, the representatives of Haiti, the United States, Panama, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Peru spoke at the regular meeting of the Permanent Council and expressed gratitude for the report and commended the Mexican authorities and citizens for the successful elections.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video of the event will be available here. The B-roll of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-400/12