sharply polarized political environment, marked by a confrontation between the Sandinista government,
in power for close to 10 years, and a
Contra-supported liberal opposition
that had formed to try to unseat them
electorally. The electoral observation
mission was instrumental in determining the outcome of the election
with its quick count vote tally and its
430 observers. Then-OAS Secretary
General João Clemente Baena Soares,
who arrived in Nicaragua a few days
before the election, worked with former U. S. President Jimmy Carter and
Elliot Richardson (the United Nations
special representative to oversee the
monitoring process)—both of whom
headed smaller missions than the
OAS—to convince President Daniel
Ortega to recognize his defeat and
Violeta Chamorro’s victory.
The involvement of non-OAS actors
in Nicaragua set a precedent. Since
that moment, the UN, the European
Union, the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe, and nongovernmental organizations like the
Carter Center have become regular—
and active—players in the field of
international electoral observation.
Their involvement strengthens the
monitoring effort, both in terms of
complementing tasks and coverage,
and exchanging information about
challenges in the electoral process.
In 1994 in the Dominican Republic, international election observation teams and the OAS helped head
off potential political turmoil and
contributed to the country’s democratic transition. During the 1994 elections, observers reported significant
irregularities that they concluded
had compromised the final results of
the general elections, and the resulting fallout brought the country to a
political standstill. In cooperation
with the Catholic Church, the OAS
mission facilitated negotiations between the opposition and the ruling
party. Those negotiations produced
an agreement that called for new elections in 18 months. The so-called “
Democracy Pact” also set a schedule for
the appointment of new, independent
electoral authorities, and for reform
of the electoral system—including a
ban on immediate reelection—that
set the stage for the Dominican Republic’s democratic government.
In Peru in 2000, the OAS observa-
tion mission encountered other dif-
ficulties that pointed to tensions in
the field and—ultimately—helped
strengthen the inter-American system
for defending democracy. In the run-
up to the first round of the presiden-
tial and congressional elections, the
mission identified serious and wide-
spread organizational, logistical and
computing irregularities. Its recom-
mendation was to postpone the sec-
ond round to provide time to rectify
the problems, but President Alberto
Fujimori’s government rejected it. In
the face of intransigence by Peruvian
electoral authorities and the decision
of opposition candidate Alejandro To-
ledo to boycott the election, the OAS
election observation mission pulled
out of observing the second round.
What followed demonstrated the
important role that observation missions can play beyond the electoral
process. The OAS election mission’s
sharp critique of the process led to
an OAS General Assembly resolution
questioning the victory of President
Fujimori in the second round. The effort brought broader international attention to the Fujimori government.
The following year, after President
Fujimori fled to Japan and resigned,
an OAS mission returned to Peru to
facilitate negotiations for new elections that were held in November 2001.
In Venezuela, the OAS election observation mission’s technical advice
and recommendations helped avert a
potential logistical breakdown. Five
days before the scheduled May 2000
“mega” elections in Venezuela—so
called because they were for every
elected position in the new constitution: president, national and departmental legislators, governors, mayors,
and local councilmembers—the OAS
team in that country observed significant delays in the preparations. Key
among them was the electronic system, which was not ready to process
the voting and thus likely to produce
unreliable, questionable results. Venezuelan electoral authorities accepted
the mission’s recommendation to
postpone the vote and separate the
ELMER MARTINEZ/AFP/GETTY
OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza (left) signs an agreement with Roberto
Rivas, president of Nicaragua’s Supreme Electoral Council, to monitor the 2011
presidential election.
AMERICASQUARTERLY.ORG
Americas Quarterly SPRING 2012
21
