MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

OAS demands an end to violence and an urgent call for elections

The document urges all political and civil actors in Bolivia, including all authorities, civil, military and security forces, and the general public, to immediately cease from violence

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States, OAS, has called on Bolivian authorities to urgently call elections, an immediate cease of violence, and the search for dialogue.

The resolution was approved by 26 votes, 3 against (Mexico, Nicaragua and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, four abstentions, Barbados, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay, and one absent, Dominica.

The five point document basically calls upon the Bolivian authorities urgently to call elections, as mandated by the Constitution and law of Bolivia, and to promptly adopt an electoral schedule that gives certainty to the Bolivian people about an electoral process with full democratic guarantees.

Urges all political and civil actors in Bolivia, including all authorities, civil society, the military and security forces, and the general public, immediately to cease from violence, preserve peace, and seek a frank dialogue to promote national democratic reconciliation.

Likewise calls on all Bolivian authorities to ensure full and unrestricted observance and protection of human rights and to ensure that any violation thereof is held to account, in accordance with international human rights law.

Requests support for the initiative of the Secretary General of the OAS to deploy, at the invitation of Bolivia, a delegation to hold preliminary high-level meetings in a bid to ensure the holding of free, fair, and transparent elections with effective guarantees within a short time, and finally instruct the OAS General Secretariat, through the Secretariat for Strengthening Democracy, to grant all the requested technical support necessary for the electoral process to begin immediately, in accordance with the principles of transparency, independence, credibility, and trust consistent with international electoral standards.