BRAZIL: MONITORS FOR BOLIVIAN ELECTIONS

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