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OAS Submits Report on Mission for Legislative Elections in Colombia

The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), through its Department for Electoral Cooperation and Observation (DECO), today presented to the Permanent Council of the Organization in Washington, D.C., its report on the Electoral Oversight Mission for the Colombian legislative elections of March 14.

The full report, in Spanish, is available here.

In the absence of the Chief of Mission, the former Chilean Minister Enrique Correa presented the report to the director of DECO, Pablo Gutiérrez, who asserted that “the weaknesses and strengths of the Colombian electoral organization were reflected on the day of the election.”

Furthermore, he highlighted that, compared to previous elections, these had “one of the lowest levels of violence, a reduction of 86 percent in the activities of terrorist groups and a 100 percent reduction in political violence.”

The report further highlights that the National Civil Registry “ensured good conditions at the start of the electoral day. Almost all of voting tables had the complete material to receive the voters and the beginning of the voting was carried out in a timely way with the participation of the designated juries.” Nevertheless, he indicated that the secret ballot “was not implemented adequately” in an important number of voting centers, in many cases “due to the structure and disposition of voting booths, which constitutes a critical aspect of the electoral process.”

On the other hand the Mission registered “the buying of votes in the Departments of Atlántico, Bolívar, Cundinamarca, Magdalena, Nariño y Norte de Santander,” an anomaly that it had already detected and made public in the local elections of 2007.

With respect to the ease of voting, Gutiérrez said “it is important to note that many voters were disoriented with the procedures to follow. Doubtless the complexity of the voting system, reflected in the ballots, explains many of these problems, aggravated by an electorate with less experience.” He added that “the software to carry out the tallies was changed when the process had already begun, complicating the dynamic of the tallying committees.”

On the recommendations submitted the report mentioned: “to strengthen the training of juries,” “simplify the voting mechanisms,” “improve the conditions of the voting places,” “facilitate access to tallies,” and the “transmissions of preliminary results.”

Among its conclusions, the Mission underlines that, despite the environment of peace in which passed the electoral day, “so many years of violence have obscured the structural failings of the Colombian electoral system” and the succession of elections “carried out by the same institutions has led to a certain organization inertia that is reflected in a scarce modernization of the processes of internal action and a delay in dealing with administrative or jurisdictional issues.”

The Mission of Electoral Oversight was integrated by 70 international observers from 17 OAS Member States and from five observer countries. The financial contributions of Canada, South Korea, the United States, Spain and Sweden allowed the Mission to begin its activities on February 20 and establish headquarters in 16 departments of the country.

For his part, the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the Organization, Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos, highlighted on behalf of his government “the important role the OAS has again played,” and underlined “the presence of the mission in all parts of the country and the joint work that was carried out with members of the National Electoral Council, the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, the National Civil Registry, government and municipal authorities and the permanent contact with representatives of civil society.”

With respect to the conclusions reached by the OAS Mission, Ambassador Hoyos asserted that the President “has taken careful note and communicated with the various organizations that are part of the process.” With respect to the irregularities in 15 thousand tables he affirmed they involve “complaints, not irregularities” that are being verified.

The Permanent Representatives of Panama, the United States and Canada also intervened during the Permanent Council session.

The OAS will also observe the presidential elections in Colombia on May 30. For that purpose, the Chief of Mission, Enrique Correa, visited the country between April 20 and 22, when the Mission that will observe the elections was set up. Currently there is already a group of observers moving around the country.

Photographs of the event are posted here

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

Reference: E-161/10