OAS to Monitor Presidential Elections in Guatemala
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Haroldo Rodas Melgar, today signed an agreement whereby the hemispheric organization will send an observation mission to monitor the general elections set for September 11, 2011, in that Central American country.
(Media-Newswire.com) - The Secretary General of the Organization of American States ( OAS ), José Miguel Insulza, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala, Haroldo Rodas Melgar, today signed an agreement whereby the hemispheric organization will send an observation mission to monitor the general elections set for September 11, 2011, in that Central American country.
Guatemalans will go to the polls to elect a president and vice president, congressional representatives, and municipal councils nationwide, in addition to principal and alternate deputies to the Central American Parliament for the next four years.
The Secretary General underscored the significance of the elections and noted that their observation was “a highly important undertaking for which we plan to deploy observers all over the country.” “We believe that a responsibility of this type comes with the obligation to discharge it thoroughly,” he added.
The OAS’s senior official announced the appointment of José Octavio Bordón, a former Argentine senator, as chief of mission. He also explained that the observer group would include experts in the areas of electoral organization and law, the press, observer coordination, political analysis, and logistics, among others. “We have complete faith in the abilities of Mr. Bordón and the entire mission team,” he said.
The Guatemalan foreign minister thanked the OAS General Secretariat for the support that it has provided “to the Guatemalan people and government so that the elections might proceed -as ever- in a calm and transparent manner.” He added that the Organization demonstrates all “its expertise at every election in Latin America.”
The signing ceremony took place in the context of the forty-first regular session of the OAS General Assembly, which concludes today in El Salvador.
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