The Organization of American States (OAS) has reiterated this Tuesday its support for the institutions of the Dominican Republic in view of the repetition of municipal elections on May 15 after the elections of February 16 were suspended due to a “ruling technical”.
“The Electoral Observation Mission (MOE), deployed in the country since February 7, will maintain its presence until after the extraordinary elections,” the organization said in a statement.
Thus, he has specified that a technical team “will permanently observe the tasks of organizing the elections”, as well as the implementation of technology for the transmission and consolidation of the minutes.
In addition, the activities carried out in the Municipal Electoral Boards will be monitored.
The OAS is finalizing an audit of the automated voting system in the Dominican Republic “complete and binding around its results”. To this end, it has requested the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to adopt all the necessary measures to “preserve the integrity of the different components of the automated voting system”, as stated in the text.
“In order to ensure maximum rigor of this exercise, the work of the experts will be carried out independently and autonomously. The auditors will work with strict care so as not to impede the work of the technicians and officials of the electoral authorities dedicated to the organization of the municipal elections of March 15 “, has qualified.
The completion of the authorship responds to the request of the president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) of the country, Julio Cesar Castaños, who requested the OAS to set up a group of experts to conduct an audit on the automated voting system, which It did not work in the last elections.
The suspension of the elections has provoked protests during the last week, especially in Santo Domingo, the capital of the country. Protesters ask the Government for answers after the JCE decided to suspend the elections.
The Dominicans will have to return to the polls on March 15 to elect a total of 3,849 positions, although this time they will do so with physical ballots to avoid new errors in the electronic voting system.
