Media Center

Press Release


Leonel Fernández and Edgardo Ortuño to Lead OAS Electoral Observation Missions in Bolivia and Costa Rica

  January 8, 2016

The Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General, Luis Almagro, today appointed Leonel Fernández and Edgardo Ortuño to lead the Electoral Observation Missions (EOMs) that the institution will deploy for the upcoming elections in Bolivia and Costa Rica.

Former president of the Dominican Republic Leonel Fernández will head the Mission that will observe the Constitutional Referendum in Bolivia on February 21. The team to be deployed in Costa Rica for the municipal elections of February 7 will be headed by Uruguayan Edgardo Ortuño, who served as Under Secretary and Acting Minister of Industry, Energy and Mines (2011-2015) and as a Member of Parliament for Montevideo.

In 1962 Costa Rica was the first Member State in which the OAS deployed an Electoral Observation Mission. Since then 11 elections have been observed in this Central American country. In Bolivia the OAS has observed 15 electoral processes since 1966, including the referenda of 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009, as well as the 2014 presidential and 2015 municipal elections.

Reference: E-360/16