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Background

Elections in Bolivia

LA PAZ, Bolivia. – In response to an invitation from the government of Bolivia, the Organization of American States (OAS), through its Department of Democratic and Political Affairs, has begun to deploy its Electoral Observation Mission. The team will observe the development of the electoral process that will lead to the election of Bolivia’s new executive and legislative powers, as well as departmental prefectures.

The Electoral Observation Mission established its headquarters at the Radisson Hotel in La Paz on November 7 and began installing a core group that included specialists in computer systems, electoral affairs, press and logistics, among others. Two specialists from the Department of Democratic and Political Affairs have also been in the country since that date.

During this initial phase, the Mission established contact with representatives of the executive and legislative powers, electoral organizations (the National Electoral Court and Departmental Electoral Courts), candidates for the presidency, vice-presidency and prefectures, political parties, the media, civil society groups, and national and international institutions associated with the electoral process.

The purpose of these contacts has been to explain the Mission’s objectives, obtain information about the political and electoral environment, and coordinate the necessary collaboration mechanisms for a successful Mission.

During the first week of December, the first group of 15 electoral observers arrived in La Paz from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the United States and Venezuela. These observers will act as regional and departmental coordinators and as the liaisons with the political parties.

The first training session for observers took place on Monday, December 5, with the participation of members of Bolivia’s National Electoral Court, the Departmental Electoral Court, the Deputy Minister of the Interior and the National Office of Planning of the National Police.

The second and final training day will take place on Monday, December 12, at the Radisson Hotel headquarters, with a new team of observers.

During their observation work, at the invitation of the National Electoral Court, the members of the OAS Mission had the opportunity to witness the technical test of transmission of results, which was carried out on December 6.

It is important to emphasize that since the Mission intends to deploy observers throughout the country, it has established offices in nine departments of Bolivia. The observers, who are already in place, will travel to urban centers as part of their assignment, but they will mainly be stationed in Bolivia’s rural areas.

Finally, the Mission would like to highlight the important collaboration of the governments of Denmark, Holland, Spain and Sweden, which have contributed financially and provided volunteers to take part as electoral observers. Without their support it would have been difficult to carry out the observation tasks, as well as to have established an advance presence in the country and with such a significant number of observers.

Reference: EOM-BOL-1