The OAS electoral mission that observed the 2024 municipal elections in the Dominican Republic emphatically reiterated the need to combat the pernicious practice of vote buying. The OAS observers say vote buying is a crime that undermines the free exercise of suffrage and undermines voter confidence in the entire electoral system.
“We insist on the importance of adopting strong measures to eradicate it. Its elimination is a shared responsibility of the administrative, electoral, police and judicial authorities, as well as the political parties themselves and citizens in general,” the mission wrap-up letter concludes.
The document, which as a whole makes a positive assessment of the electoral process, highlights that in most of the country, the elections took place peacefully, despite isolated incidents reported before and during election day.
The OAS mission urges politicians to analyze the reasons for the low voter turnout and to take measures to motivate more people to exercise their vote.
The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) was made up of 16 people of six nationalities and was headed by the former Foreign Minister of Paraguay, Eladio Loizaga. Loizaga had only recently headed the mission that worked during the Guatemala elections in 2023.
This was the twenty-first time that the OAS deployed an electoral observation mission in the Dominican Republic.
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El Nuevo Diario
El Caribe
21 February 2024