Cablegate: Brazil: Monitors for Bolivian Elections
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS BRASILIA 003134
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV BR BO
SUBJECT: BRAZIL: MONITORS FOR BOLIVIAN ELECTIONS
REF: STATE 214591
1. (U) On 29 November PolCounselor delivered reftel demarche
to Clemente Baena Soares, Andean Division Chief at the
Ministry for External Relations. (Note: Per ref request,
PolCouns attempted to inform and coordinate with Bolivian
Embassy regarding the demarche, but Bolivian diplomats did
not respond in a timely fashion. End note.) Baena Soares
read the text of the Bolivian diplomatic note in reftel, and
indicated that the GOB had not/not yet received any official
invitation from Bolivia regarding bilateral observer missions
from Brazil for the 18 December election. Baena Soares said
the GOB has a strong interest in assisting the Bolivians in
holding an election that is transparent and legitimate. He
said the GOB would try to respond to an invitation for
bilateral contributions by organizing observers from the
government, election commissions and civil society groups,
but would only do so when asked by the Bolivians. The GOB is
waiting for an approach either in Brasilia or La Paz, but
time is growing short, he added.
2. (U) Baena Soares said the GOB is studying the possibility
of providing up to 50 of the Brazilian federal electoral
authority's highly-reliable electronic voting urns to the
Bolivian government for the election, for use on an
experimental basis only, not for purposes of actual vote
counting in this election. The idea would be to see how
Bolivians react to the electronic systems, with a view to
providing further assistance in this area if it was assessed
that the electronic urns could facilitate greater efficiency,
participation and transparency in future elections.
Linehan