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OAS Assistant Secretary General Urges Electoral Authorities of the Hemisphere to “Create Trust and Build Confidence”

The Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert R. Ramdin, today encouraged participants of the Seventh Inter-American Meeting of Electoral Management Bodies to continue to “create trust and build confidence” in their countries’ electoral systems by strengthening their electoral institutions and improving communication with the voting public.

Ambassador Ramdin spoke during the closing session of the two-day event, “Increasing Access to Electoral Processes,” hosted by the OAS at its Washington, DC, headquarters with the support of the government of the United States.

The Inter-American Meetings of Electoral Management Bodies seeks to promote the effective exchange of knowledge, experiences, and best practices on electoral administration in the hemisphere. Topics discussed at the event included: models of engagement between electoral management bodies and political parties in electoral processes; the role of media during electoral processes; access to voting for persons with disabilities; and OAS initiatives in the electoral field.

In addressing electoral authorities from more than 25 countries of the hemisphere, Ambassador Ramdin, who has led several electoral observation missions to OAS member states, said he has seen “very good practices and useful approaches to elections,” but also “very bad and very strange practices.” He said meetings of the electoral management bodies are useful to move forward on and improve the democratic experiences of OAS member states.

“Our electoral systems are diverse, but one would hope that we can agree on the core principles of the elections, that we can agree on the core approach to elections,” he stated. “I think at some point in time we have to put these benchmarks, these best practices together and use them as a guiding principle for all of us.”

In particular, Ramdin shared with his audience five issues of importance: using the experience of electoral management bodies to agree on the core purpose of the elections process; strengthen electoral bodies, councils and courts by making them financially sound, independent and depoliticized; urging political leaders and stakeholders to meet their obligation to comply with electoral law; make every effort to uphold the authority of electoral bodies; and improve communication with the larger audience to explain and clarify the decisions of such bodies and avoid confusion and tension.

Ramdin added that “now that formal democracies have been established throughout the hemisphere, the next step should be to deepen that process to make sure that democracy exists not just in a formal sense but that in the minds of the people it is accepted as the main form of government.”

The event was also attended by OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza; the Permanent Representative of the United States to the OAS and current Chairwoman of the Permanent Council, Ambassador Carmen Lomellin; the President of the Election Assistance Commission of the United States (EAC), Donetta Davidson; and the President of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Matthew S. Petersen.

Photographs of the event will be posted here

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

Reference: E-164/10