The Secretary General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro is expected in Santo Domingo to attend the Assembly of the 2nd A-WEB General Assembly and International Conference 18-21 August 2015. The Association of World Electoral Bodies brings together election management organizations from around the world.
Almagro is infamous in the Dominican Republic for his recent statement about “one island-one country” in an interview with CNN Espanol in regards to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The OAS has offered to be a mediator between the governments of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in regards to resolve disputes surrounding the immigration process to document Haitians living in the Dominican Republic.
Almagro will be a panelist during the event that is expected to gather over 100 electoral bodies from around the world.
Almagro’s visit comes shortly after the holding of elections in Haiti where only an estimated 3% of the population participated, primarily due to the lack of identity documents of persons living in Haiti. Almagro supported the sending of an OAS mission to the Dominican Republic after claims by the Haitian ambassador that the legalization procedures of foreigners living in the Dominican Republic was producing a humanitarian crisis. The mission’s report, however, offered no substantiation of the humanitarian crisis, and simply recommended continued talks between the two governments, proposing the OAS to be the mediator.
The A-WEB meeting also features several former presidents as panelists. These include Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain; Mauricio Funes of El Salvador; Martin Torrijo of Panama; Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica and Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic. Also former Prime Minister of Belgium Yves Leterme is scheduled to participate in the A-WEB.
During the 2nd A-WEB meeting, the president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) of the Dominican Republic, Roberto Rosario, will assume the presidency of the organization. Rosario is in charge of organizing the presidential, legislative and municipal elections in 2016. Voters need to elect around 4,000 government officers.
The opening of A-WEB is in Santo Domingo at 10am at the Dominican Fiesta Hotel, but most of the sessions will be held beginning on Wednesday, 19 August 2015, in Punta Cana at the Paradisus Palma Real.