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Electoral observance “serves to build the foundations of Latin American democracy” said Organization of American States, OAS, Secretary General Jose Miguel Inuslza during opening remarks at a Roundtable entitled “International Election Observation: Progress and Challenges,” held at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC.
The Roundtable is part of the celebrations to mark 50 years of OAS electoral observations. Participating in the event were the OAS Director of the Department for Electoral Cooperation and Observation, Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian; the Director of the Centre for North American Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Democracy and Election Management at American University, Robert Pastor; Senior Associate and Director of Electoral Programs at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Patrick Merloe; the Director for the Americas and Europe Division of the UN General Secretariat and former Director of the OAS Unit for the Promotion of Democracy, Elizabeth Spehar; and the Permanent Representative of Guyana to the OAS, Ambassador Bayney Karran. Following a questions and answer session, the OAS Assistant Secretary General, Albert Ramdin, delivered the closing remarks for the event.