The head of the Organization of American States (OAS) electoral observers mission, former President of Colombia Andres Pastrana says that it there is an urgent need to pass an electoral law to promote equality in the distribution of public finances and limit the funds provided by the private sector.
He said a law would strengthen controls and apply penalties in cases where the law is violated. Pastrana said that inter-institutional coordination was needed between the areas of government involved with the management and provision of resources including the Auditing Office, the Central Electoral Board, banks and the Ministry of Hacienda.
He said that the 38 experts and international observers who visited 292 centers across 18 provinces said that the elections passed off normally but the biggest problem was the disorder and uncertainty fuelled by the deficiency of the installation of the equipment to support the process.
He said in many centers there was a lack of equipment and technicians and there were problems with the biometric machines and automatic scanning machines.
He said that voting had to begin even though the equipment wasn’t working and that problems with the equipment had been seen since 1 May, when the JCE had started testing the equipment including the lack of training of the technicians and their knowledge of how it worked. In addition they did not know the security codes and there was simply a lack of resources to manage the process.
Finally he said that there were delays and failure to provide electronic kits and a high number of people supposed to be assisting did not arrive.
http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2016/05/17/419619/mision-oea-considera-urgente-que-se-disene-una-ley-electoral
