The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, and the Permanent Representative of Panama to the OAS, María del Carmen Roquebert, signed an agreement for the deployment of an Observation Electoral Mission (EOM) for the elections for President and Vice-President of the Republic, members of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), members of the National Assembly, Mayors, Councilors and Representatives of Corregimiento, which will be held in the Central American country on May 5.
During the ceremony that took place at the OAS headquarters in Washington D.C., Ambassador Roquebert said that the signing of the agreement "is the reiteration of Panama's commitment to the Electoral Observation Missions, as one of the fundamental resources that the Organization of American States provides for the strengthening of the always imperfect democracies of our region." She also thanked the Secretary General for the designation as Chief of the Mission the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Susana Malcorra, "A very important objective for our delegation is met, that it is a woman who leads the observation mission that strengthens our electoral system with a gender perspective," she concluded.
For his part, the Secretary General recalled that the objective of the OAS Missions is "to support the strengthening of electoral processes and democracy in the region," ensuring that once the May 5 elections are over "the Mission will formulate recommendations in order to contribute to the Panamanian electoral system." He also highlighted that "electoral integrity is a fundamental issue for citizens' confidence in the democratic system in our region."
Since 1978, the OAS has deployed 11 Electoral Observation Missions in Panama, including for the 2004 general elections, the referendum on the Canal Expansion held in 2006 and the general elections of 2009, 2014 and 2019.
Reference: FNE-143984
