US embassy cable - 05BRASILIA3134

UNCLAS BRASILIA 003134 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, BR, BO, External Relations 
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