WASHINGTON, USA – The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Plurinational State of Bolivia today signed the agreement on privileges and immunities for the OAS electoral mission that will observe the general elections on October 18.
The Permanent Representative of Bolivia to the OAS, Jaime Aparicio, said that his country faces “the most complicated, most difficult and most important elections in contemporary history.” “There is a lot of confidence in the majority of the population that the role of the OAS will be crucial, this role, as always, will also be supported by the European Union and by the Carter Center, and it is the best guarantee that these elections will be held with transparency, objectivity and integrity,” added the Bolivian diplomat.
For his part, the secretary-general of the OAS, Luis Almagro, recalled that in the previous presidential election – on October 20, 2019 – the OAS Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) found irregularities and that an OAS audit confirmed irregularities and intentional manipulation by the authorities of the electoral result.
“Long before the Mission’s report, long before the audit report, the Bolivian people said that there had been fraud and intentional manipulation. And the Bolivian people today will be the ones who have to find ways to guarantee peace in this electoral process, to avoid falling into the trap of polarization that is being created and to generate social spaces for unity so that this process can give what Bolivia needs and deserves – a democratically elected and legitimate president,” added secretary-general Almagro.
This will be the twentieth time that the OAS has sent an Electoral Observation Mission to Bolivia.
