Central Electoral Board (JCE) president Luis Arias revealed yesterday that he has been receiving calls from his counterparts in other parts of the world, who are expressing surprise at the imminent and apparently inevitable approval of electoral reform, in the shape of the Preferential Presidential Vote (Ley de Lemas), with less than four months to go before the May Presidential elections. Arias relayed a typical conversation as follows: “They told me, ‘For God’s sake! If there is any policy we all share, it would be that we do not introduce changes so close to an election!'” Arias says he has responded to them: “But that is our reality.” Arias went on to echo his colleagues concern at the proposed law, which would allow up to five Presidential candidates to run under each party’s banner. The JCE’s head of protocol, Alejandro Vicini, announced that because of the circumstances, the board has already invited electoral observers (including the United Nations Association, the Organization of American States and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems) to engage in “early monitoring” of this year’s elections.