The Organization of American States' Electoral Observation Mission on Tuesday highlighted the efforts of Peru's electoral bodies to ensure the proper conduct of the extraordinary parliamentary elections held last Sunday.
According to the mission, even though they were not part of the agenda, the
parliamentary elections "constituted an important challenge that tested the effectiveness of their technical, human, and regulatory capacities in a short period of time."
In its preliminary report, concerning
women's political participation, the mission said the 30% gender quota for the lists has not been reached effectively, given that the percentage of elected female representatives was never met, and that women were placed in the lower third of parliamentary lists, which limits their possibility to be elected.
In this context, the observers recommend that the
new Congress continue the debate on gender equality in order to speed up its implementation, regulate exclusions and removals —so that if a woman is removed from a list, she can be replaced by another woman— as well as develop a specific regulatory framework to prevent, detect, and punish gender-based political violence, during electoral and non-electoral periods.
Regarding electoral justice, the mission recommends establishing a preliminary procedure to find out who may be eligible to run as candidate, thus applying the exclusion criteria to serious cases.
Another recommendation is to implement a gradual catalogue of grounds for sanctions for omitting or falsifying information in the candidate's resume, where exclusion should be the last applicable option.
As for the In-Person Electronic Voting (VEP), the OAS delegation reiterates its recommendation to discuss this technological solution during technological audits of software and hardware, with experts, political parties, and citizens.
The new 130 legislators will serve the remaining period of the 2016-2021 legislative tenure, following the dissolution of Congress.
Published: 1/28/2020