Publication | Report/Paper

Peru: Pre-Election Technical Assessment

Executive Summary

At the request of USAID/Lima, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems sent two teams to Peru (one for the January 1993 municipal elections, another in May/June 1994 to evaluate changes in the Constitution and electoral legislation) to prepare a pre-election needs assessment in advance of general elections anticipated for April 1995. The current government was democratically elected in 1990, but its commitment to democracy had been closely scrutinized since closing the National Congress in April 1992. Three electoral processes - elections of members to a national constituent assembly in November 1992, municipal elections in January 1993, and a constitutional referendum in October 1993 - have been closely observed by the international community. Numerous changes were introduced into Peruvian election administration by provisions of the new constitution, although full implementation of these will take some time.

With assistance from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Peru's National Elections Board (Jurado Nacional de Elecciones - JNE) undertook a modernization program over the last 18 months. The program seeks to fully integrate computer technology into the implementation of Peruvian elections in order to speed up the processing of election results and thereby increase public confidence in the electoral system. The 1995 elections will be an important indicator, both of the level of commitment of the government to democratic elections, and of the extent of success of the modernization program.

Following a week of meetings with election officials, the United Nations Development Program, bilateral donors, media, and independent observers and with the findings of the 1993 visit in mind, the assessment team's principal recommendations are the following:

a. IFES offers to provide a legal advisor to the JNE during its initial review of election legislation;

b. IFES offers to develop and administer, in conjunction with the JNE, a training program for key lNE staff and for members and key staff of departmental election officials once they are named;

c. IFES offers to develop additional training materials for use in preparing voters, poll workers, and poll watchers for their roles in the 1995 elections;

d. USIS/Lima arranges for a group of Peruvian broadcast and print journalists to travel to the United States for the November 1994 congressional elections to witness media election coverage in the United States. Furthermore, it proposes to send a specialist in polling and vote-tally verification to Lima to discuss technical aspects of preelection polling, exit polling, and election results tabulation with Peruvian polling firms and media outlets.

Additional recommendations appear at the end of the document. 

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