Preliminary Report on the conditions
during Peruvian elections

Domingo, 8 de abril del 2001

• The electoral authorities for promoting a trustful environment and for the organization level of the election process.

• The political parties for their accepting and respecting the result of the elections and the decisions of the electoral authorities, as well as for the tolerant environment among them.

• Citizens, in general, for their will to express their democratic decision through their votes.

The following aspects must be highlighted:

• The extraordinary institutional and political conditions in which the election process took place, as well as the efficient participation of the authorities in the organization of the electoral process in such a short time.

• The peaceful and reliable environment in which the elections took place.

• The joint participation of both the government and civil society to achieve democratic governance in the country, especially the willingness of all the actors to restate their relationships in order to conduct public administration.

We must particularly underscore the broad participation of citizens in the process, expressed in the following aspects: motivation and social mobilization; technical capacity; civic formation and credibility with regard to their country - the civil association Transparencia is the most clear and incisive example of that.

In the Peruvian process, we realized that the civil society organizations stopped being observers and become process facilitators, taking on different kinds of responsibilities, ranging from the formal control of campaign expenditure by the political parties to becoming responsible for the direct orientation to voters.  This can be specifically evidenced in the impact and credibility of the quick counting of votes carried out by the civil organizations.  The information disclosed by Transparencia was the most reliable for the society, the electoral authorities, and the candidates of the different political parties.

The case of Peru confirms that citizen participation is possible and that it is a critical element democracy-building.

Quality of the Election Day

• We agree with the evaluation reports issued by the OAS and NDI/ Carter Center missions regarding the delay in the opening of the polling stations.  Although they were opened within the timeframe set forth by law, we believe that this goes against the rights of voters and casts a shadow on the exercise of a right which, to our belief, is a civic celebration.

• We think that the delay in opening the voting center is closely linked, among other factors, to the complex procedures of installation and the deficient training of the polling station officials (miembros de mesa). However, it is worth mentioning that once the stations were formally installed, the election process developed in a fluent and normal way.

• Another aspect which calls our attention is that, despite the amount of information regarding the location of the polling stations, the excessive concentration of voters at each of the stations, caused a great deal of confusion and on several occasions, voters had to move over long distances to reach their voting stations.  Also, we believe that this could become a serious safety problem.

•Regarding the party representatives and the political parties, we could verify that in many cases they were unable to cover a significant number of polling stations.

• The polling stations closed at the hour set by the authorities and we could observe that the process established by the election authority is technically complex, delaying the work of the polling station officials.

Based on the fact that each process has its particular features and responds to the reality of each one of our countries, and given our experience we present to you the following recommendations:

• Evaluate the installation and counting processes structure and rethink the need to keep the safety aspects, which make the election act slow and complex.

• Add penalties into the legal framework to those political parties that do not meet the regulations in force regarding financing and campaign expenditure.

• Increase the number of polling stations in order to reduce the number of voters per station and locate them near their domiciles.

• Ensure the presence of a representative of every party per polling station, as a confidence mechanism in the process.

• Reinforce and encourage the presence and training of the elected polling station officials.

We would like to commend ONPE for deciding to keep a separate registry of disabled people in order to relocate them in more accessible polling stations within the voting centers.

Silvia Alonso
Alianza Cívica (Mexico)

José Ceballos and Teresa Hernández
Participación Ciudadana (Dominican Republic)

Gerda Bien Aime and Grecian Jean
Conseil National D’Observateurs (Haiti)
Roberto Courtney
Ética y Transparencia (Nicaragua)

Mercedes De Freitas
Momento de la Gente (Venezuela)