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OAS and Dominican Republic Sign Agreement of Technical Support and Audit of the Electoral Registry for the General Elections of May 20

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Government of the Dominican Republic today signed an agreement for the provision by the OAS of technical cooperation on electoral matters, including an audit of the electoral registry and the procedures of data transmission for the Presidential General Elections and Ultramar Congress Elections of May 20.

The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, and the President of the Central Electoral Board of the Dominican Republic, Roberto Rosario Márquez, signed the document during a ceremony held at Organization headquarters in Washington, DC, attended by the Permanent Representative of Dominican Republic to the OAS, Ambassador Roberto Saladin, and the Chair of the Permanent Council of the OAS and Representative of Haiti to the Organization, Ambassador Duly Brutus. Also present were representatives of the Member States of the Organization and high-level OAS officials.

Secretary General Insulza expressed satisfaction for “this new show of confidence” by the Dominican government, which constitutes “an important” request for the Organization. “We have earned experience in this matter,” he said, “an experience in the implementation of audits in El Salvador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Guatemala, and the good results from these processes we have obtained from a methodology that is exclusively ours and that has been acquiring a well deserved prestige.”

These facts, he said, will allow “this election that we are going to observe to be conducted with high guarantees for transparency and relevance, and with the tranquility of all citizens of the Dominican Republic.”

Roberto Rosario Márquez thanked “the contribution and support that in a permanent way the OAS has been providing the Central Electoral Board and the Dominican people in the consolidation of the democratic processes we conduct.” “The registry we have today is the fruit of a collaboration agreement with the OAS,” recalled the President of the Dominican Central Electoral Board, “and upon signing this agreement we do so with the certainty that the Organization of American States will contribute aggregate value to the levels of transparency we already have in the Dominican Republic in matters of administration and electoral management.”

The Dominican official recalled that in 1994 the Organization “played a stellar role in the Dominican Republic regarding some electoral processes that gave full satisfaction to the Dominican people and the political and social stakeholders. At that time the OAS provided technicians, personnel, and resources to implement measures in the system, which contributed to the stability of the Republic and the strengthening of democracy.”

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-011/12