Facing the challenges that the pandemic presented to Latin American governments, International IDEA, along with the Global Electoral Justice Network, supported government cooperation to strengthen regional capacity by gathering electoral experts and electoral authorities to discuss issues such as electoral justice and democratic best practices.
Since May 2020, the group have held 16 meetings to exchange experiences on the pandemic’s impact on electoral processes. Judges and electoral officers from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru have discussed (a) electoral justice, (b) technology applied to electoral processes, (c) voting modalities and mechanisms, (d) gender equality and (e) sanitary protocols. The main output of the meetings was guidelines that systematized the expert contributions. The high-level group will continue in 2021.
The cooperation among the electoral authorities improved the response on the organization of electoral processes in the region by implementing sanitation measures for each part of the electoral process, guaranteeing the execution of their voting rights without risking the national health situation.