Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) 2022-2025

No reports for 2024 have been submitted up to date, as according to the agreement they should be received by the Embassy on June 30, 2025. For information on results achieved, please see the Statement on Narrative Report, dated 2024-07-18 (UM2021/24969/BOGO-61, and the Conclusion on Performance for Handover dated 2024-05-02 (UM2021/24969/BOGO-58). The following section will mostly focus on results achieved during 2023, and therefore since the last Conclusion of Performance was written. For more information on results achieved during 2022, see the narrative report (UM2021/24969/BOGO41) and the last Conclusion of Performance (UM2021/24969/BOGO17). Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) has during this contribution carried out three electoral observation missions: during the Congressional elections held on March 13th, 2022, the Presidential elections on May 29th, 2022, and the regional elections October 29th. In the elections 2022, over 7.000 electoral observers were deployed. In the elections 2023, over 3.000 electoral observers participated 58% women, 41% men and 1% trans people in a total of 530 municipalities. Furthermore, MOE also observed 39 school elections during 2023, where student observers for the first time participated, an important action to promote youth participation and inclusion. During the elections in 2022, MOE for the first time included three differential perspectives to monitor the participation of women, trans people, and people with disabilities. This continued during the elections in 2023 and including ethnic minorities. MOE has also carried out several awareness raising initiatives with the aim of socializing protocols and guarantees for the equal right to vote for these population groups. MOE has during 2023 promoted the adoption of the Protocol for the Attention and Prevention of Violence again Women in Politics by 4 political parties and 5 public corporations and signed a pact with 18 political parties on the same theme. MOE launched 5 monitoring reports during 2023 considering violence against political, social, and communitarian leaders in Colombia, and presented this to different actors such as the Ministry of Interior, Ombudsman's Office, and UN Verification Mission. Furthermore, the book mapping out electoral risks was launched in Bogotá and nine other cities during 2023, that identified over 300 municipalities with some level of risk of electoral fraud or violence. The focus on public administration and transparency was mainly worked with through three themes: strengthening institutions, campaign financing and citizen oversight. This included, for instance, training of more than 230 officials of the Attorney Generals Office and Judicial police focusing on electoral crime, 6 reports created monitoring the funding for political campaigns, and two citizen oversight occasions were carried out. MOE in their communications work also trained 30 journalists on, for example balanced coverage of the electoral campaigns, oversight of campaign financing and differential and gender approaches for covering candidates. MOE is also the only organization from the civil society that has a permanent seat in the Electoral Monitoring Comissions, where MOE participated 142 times during 2023. During 2023, MOE has advanced in their institutional strengthening process through, for instance, arranging different regional events and meeting spaces. For example, they carried out 35 sessions Train the Trainers for different teams throughout Colombia, that in turn carried out sessions for the electoral observers. Special emphasis was given towards the participation of trans people, people with disabilities, women, and ethnic groups.

The general objective of the contribution is to strengthen citizen participation in public decision-making processes and building more democratic relations between citizenry and State. MOEs strategic plan incorporates four specific objectives: - To strengthen political and democratic participation and representation, with a focus on historically marginalized groups as women, LGBTIQ population, youth and people with disabilities. - To improve technical dialogue on electoral and political issues between civil society organizations and State institutions, incorporating diverse perspectives in terms of territories, populations, and cultures. - To foster transparency, access to information and the adequate use of public funds to counter corruption. - To promote policies that provide security guarantees for political participation.