Ambassador Frank Almaguer, chief of the Organization of American States’ (OAS’s) Elections Observer Mission, said Thursday that Belize’s dual (municipal and general) elections of Wednesday, March 7, 2012, were “a peaceful exercise of [the voting] franchise,” and the general elections was “a historically close election and certainly highly competitive.”
However, in a report to Belize media Thursday, Almaguer pointed to a number of key election issues, such as the use of government assets for electioneering, the lack of female inclusion on the ballot, the lack of campaign finance legislation, and electioneering very close to the polls on election day.
The OAS chief noted that only one of the Parliamentary seats was won by a woman – that is Belize Rural Central, won by People’s United Party candidate Dolores Balderamos-Garcia.
He also spoke of the enactment of campaign finance legislation: Campaign financing, he noted, is unregulated in Belize and there are no legal limits on campaign spending or no requirement for disclosure of campaign contributions or expenditures.
The OAS will recommend the development of campaign finance legislation to address the gaps that exist, said Almaguer.
He also spoke of electioneering in and around polling stations, and said they would recommend positive steps to reduce the role and influence of party operatives and the observation of the 100-yard boundary within which no electioneering should occur, in order to protect the voter’s ability to cast their vote without the outside pressure they receive “when they have to literally walk through the gauntlet of political activists of all persuasions.”
He told the press that there will be a more detailed verbal report and a detailed written report will be presented to the OAS. The verbal report will be made in the next several weeks to the OAS Permanent Council, which includes all 34 active member states. The full report will be public for all stakeholders to peruse, at the OAS website – www.oas.org.
Almaguer thanked Mexico, Bolivia, Chile, the UK, Switzerland, and US for financing the observer mission, which included 22 persons from 11 member states and 2 observer nations of the OAS. They were deployed throughout the 6 districts and during the course of the elections, they visited over 85% of all polling areas. They were aiming for 100%, but weather and geographic limitations deterred them, said Almaguer.
He explained that their report is based on direct observations of the observer team, as well as meetings with electoral authorities, government, political parties, civil society, and the media.
He also said that they received one observation of a cash transaction between a political agent and a voter, the reason for which was unclear, and they will be interviewing the observer in greater detail and analyzing the information. Anything else they have to say will be in the final report, he told the press.
He also noted the use of public vehicles to transport voters. This, he said, often occurs in many of our countries but it is an issue that would concern any observer.
An OAS observer mission also went to El Salvador to observe the legislative and municipal elections on Sunday, March 11, 2012.
Almaguer said that the observations in other countries will also serve to inform and identify actions for leaders of the OAS that they need to look into, in order to ensure that the privilege of voting is preserved and strengthened throughout the western hemisphere.
When asked by Amandala to comment on some of the OAS preliminary observations, Prime Minister and Leader of the United Democratic Party Dean Barrow said, “I think the OAS is going a bit too far…”
Specifically on the issue of electioneering in and around polling stations and reducing the role and influence of political agents near the voting stations, he said, “I don’t understand at all. They want to tell us to desist from our time-honored tradition of people campaigning vigorously…when the voters are approaching the polling station? Man, that’s a pipe dream. That’s a pipe dream. That’s never going to happen. In an ideal world, that will no doubt be undesirable. That is never going to happen.”
Answering to the concern that public resources are used for electioneering, Barrow said: “Of course the lines sometimes become blurred, but again that is perhaps in an ideal world also undesirable.”
He said that he is sure that the OAS never suggested in any way that Belize’s elections were unfair or “un-free.”
“We are talking about free and fair elections, man. Not perfect elections,” said Barrow.
He added, however, that the Government must take the OAS suggestions for improvement onboard, unless they are so clearly impractical.
Almaguer said the OAS team was impressed, overall, with the work of public service officials who, despite long hours in sometimes difficult conditions, worked to ensure Belize was able to mount elections in a fairly short time and to process the results effectively.
Witnessing one candidate graciously accept defeat is what he described as “democracy at its best.”