UNIORE NEWSLETTER Number 84 May - June - July, 2009 General Elections in Panama Panama City, Panama. The IIHR/CAPEL, as the Executive Secretariat of the Central American and the Caribbean Electoral Organizations Association (Protocol of Tikal) and the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations (UNIORE) was invited by the Electoral Tribunal of Panama (TE) to become part of the international observers mission for the General Elections held on May 3, 2009. The TE enabled 2,211,261 million Panamanian electors, of which a total of 1,634,989 exercised their right to vote by participating on this electoral process and by electing the new President and Vice-president of the Republic. Panamanians elected candidate Ricardo Martinelli, for Panama City, Panama: Panamanian citizens exercising their the Democratic Change, Panamanian Party, Republican right to vote at the hospitals. Nationalist Liberal Movement and Patriotic Union parties, with 59.97% of the votes against candidate Balbina Herrera, for the Democratic Revolutionary Party, Popular Party and Liberal Party, with 37.70% of the votes, thus achieving the second place. The IIHR/CAPEL Presented Notebooks 53 and The group of observers was composed by magistrates 54 on Electoral Justice and electoral representatives from the electoral organizations of Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Asuncion, Paraguay. On May 11, before a crowded Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, audience congregated at the Electoral Justice Auditorium, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, United including the National Senators and Deputies, electoral States, Uruguay and Venezuela. The Executive authorities and individuals interested on the topic, the IIHR Secretariat was represented by the IIHR/CAPEL presented two new publications belonging to its series President, Sonia Picado Sotela, accompanied by CAPEL CAPEL Notebooks: numbers 53 (Acquired Lessons Director, José Thompson and the Programs Officer, Concerning Electoral Observation Matters) and 54 Ricardo Valverde. (Tendencies and Perspectives of the Electoral Reform). The act, organized by the Superior Electoral Justice Tribunal and On a four-day Work Program, the Mission interviewed the the Institute was chaired by the TSJE Vice-president, Ms. candidates for the alliances heading the electoral Myriam Cristaldo, who was accompanied by, in preferences, Ricardo Martinelli and Balbina Herrera, as representation of the IIHR, Roberto Cuéllar M., Line Bareiro, well as the technical dependences with responsibilities member of the IIHR General Assembly and one of the for the process and political analysts. Moreover, the authors, and Horacio Cánepa, deputy coordinator of the IIHR mission disgreggated among six Panamanian provinces Regional Office for South America. on the election day and concluded that night with the evaluation session that is the basis of the Report that At the end of the interventions by Line Bareiro and Horacio CAPEL, as Executive Secretariat, sends to the Electoral Cánepa about the new publications, Roberto Cuéllar referred Organization. to the contributions included in regard to the political life and electoral events in the region, which analyze the electoral As a distinctive note, the visit that the President Elect processes in ten American countries over the last ten years. made to the international observers who were meeting for this evaluation is highlighted. IIHR/CAPEL Technical Assistance to Electoral Organizations in Ecuador Quito, Ecu ador. From May 19 to 28, a mission was carried out in the city of Quito by IIHR/CAPEL in the framework o f the Technical Assistance Project to electoral organizations in the country. Among the activities to highlight was the submission of the Technical Mission of International Observation report on the April 26 general elections to the National Electoral Council (CNE). Moreover, the Electoral Disputes Tribunal (TCE) received the specialized reports from the technical mission that visited the country from April 19 to 22 to transfer experiences on the organization of the TCE Secretariat Buenos Aires, Argentina: Visit of Dr. Endara to the National work, the development of the informatization of their work Electoral Chamber of Argentina. She is accompanied by and the structuring of a specialized library. Ricardo Valverde (left), IIHR/CAPEL Programs Officer, and Alberto Dalla Via (right), Vice-president of the National Electoral On the other hand, on May 27, the Technical Assistance Chamber of Argentina. Project Director, Ricardo Valverde, and the Vice-president of the State Electoral Commission of Puerto Rico, Néstor In the framework of the horizontal cooperation between Colón, met with representatives of different organizations electoral organizations, IIHR/CAPEL Programs Officer, Ricardo for the blind or physically challenged to evaluate the Valverde, accompanied TCE Vice-president, Ximena Endara, to political participation of their members for the April 26 a series of work meetings with the Pro-secretary of judicial acts elections. The meeting also had the attendance of the and the Director of informatics of the National Electoral Vice-president of the National Electoral Council of Ecuador, Chamber, as well as to her encounters with the Vice-president representatives from USAID/Ecuador, the “Taxi Solidario” of this high organizations, Alberto Dalla Via, and the Magistrate Project, the CNE General Coordinator and the Training Rodolfo Munné. These encounters were very helpful for Ms. Directors and Political Organizations, IIHR/CAPEL technical Endara to deeply get to know the organization and the counterparts in the implementation of the project. operations of the National Electoral Chamber and its jurisprudence processing system; the possible technical In follow-up to these activities during the first half of June, collaboration between both institutions was assessed. work was continued through the visit of Ms. Cristina Mantilla, librarian of the Electoral Disputes Tribunal of From July 06 to 09, the Technical Assistance Project Director, Ecuador, to Costa Rica; she was there from June 17 to 21 Ricardo Valverde, was in Quito, so that in coordination with the in the headquarters of the Inter-American Court of Human Director of Training of the National Electoral Council of Ecuador Rights and the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (CNE), to transfer the census of persons with special needs Joint Library, where she had the opportunity to talk with and the accessibility forms for polling stations, collected on April personnel from both information services and meet with the 26 on the general elections to the National Federation of Director of the Joint Library, Mrs. Ana Rita Ramírez, who Ecuadorinas with Physical Challenges (FENEDIF). The offered her the necessary collaboration on her new work. FENEDIF will tabulate and analyze the data that will be typed Likewise, she was attended by the Director of the Supreme with the support from the IIHR/CAPEL. Additionally, he met Electoral Tribunal of Costa Rica Library Director, Rocío with the Preparatory Commission of the Juridical Argumentation Montero, where she got acquainted with the technical and Judicial Ethics Sessions, event that is programmed for aspects related with the management of a specialized September with the participation of Manuel Atienza and Alí bibliographic collection on electoral topics. Lozada, important jurists of the University of Alicante, Spain. On June 14, follow-up was given to the activity addressed On the other hand, Rafael Balda and Diego Zambrano, TCE to achieve a better signalization of the spaces previewed representatives, visited Mexico from July 13 to 17 in the for the vote of persons with special needs, as well as the company of Ricardo Valverde; the purpose was to visit the collection of relevant information on the accessibility Federation’s Judicial Branch Electoral Tribunal and the Federal conditions of the Ecuadorian polling stations in the entire Electoral Institute in Mexico. In the framework of the horizontal country, apart from a census or registration of persons with cooperation between the electoral organizations of the special needs, in order to improve this field for future Americas, they had the opportunity to know the work of different electoral processes. TRIFE and IFE dependencies, apart of attending a public session on July 15. In order to know more about the work performed by the TCE- Ecuador, please access the following link: http://www.enlamiraonline.com/cliente/ver.php?prm=443272, Presentation of the Second Annual Labor Report of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Costa Rica San Jose, Costa Rica. Due to the presentation of the Second Annual Labor Report, on May 20, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Costa Rica carried out a special activity in the framework of the sixtieth anniversary of its creation. In this opportunity, there was participation, on behalf of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR), of its executive director, Mr. Roberto Cuéllar, and CAPEL programs officer, Sofía Vicenzi. The Magistrate President of the TSE, Mr. Luis Antonio Sobrado, emphasized on the increase of electoral processes Quito, Ecuador: An Ecuadoran senior citizen exercising his that the institution has had to organize over the last few years right to vote during the Andean Parliament and Parish as a result of a new electoral paradigm and before the need elections. to make concrete some of the political decisions previously adopted. Moreover, he highlighted TSE’s concern in Observation