[continued from here: ]
The OAS is not always the neutral, independent body it should be. It overturned an election it didn't like in Haiti and scrutinizes left-leaning countries while turning a blind eye to right-wing regimes. cepr.net/publications/r…
The OAS is not always the neutral, independent body it should be. It overturned an election it didn't like in Haiti and scrutinizes left-leaning countries while turning a blind eye to right-wing regimes. cepr.net/publications/r…
In its preliminary audit, the OAS doubles down on the idea that the quick count was manipulated, *even though the official count is the only binding count and it is counted in a separate process.* Most of the report is about the quick count. oas.org/documents/spa/…
The OAS fits trend lines to cherry-picked data to produce graphs like these, and take issue with a lot of ways the quick count was conducted. It's a bit suspicious to say the least: 
A lot of it also relies on arguments from IT contractors to the electoral authority. These contractors talk a lot about vulnerabilities in the quick count system but don't prove they were exploited in any nefarious way (and again, this is *not* the official count).
Moving to the official count, they say chain-of-custody was broken for the voting sheets (in part because opposition protesters *burned* electoral buildings), and that there appear to be some irregularities in some of the sheets.
From what I can see, it's unclear what, if any, fraud has been proven. Irregularities should be investigated of course, but every election has them, and it doesn't seem like they were large in this case. It's a baffling report.
There are also safeguards in the Bolivian system. Observers watch the tallying of votes in public. These include observers from Mesa's party.
This wasn't a serious, independent audit at all. And it further emboldened the opposition which threatened the lives of those in Morales' party. There are reports of family members being kidnapped to force resignations. Morales' house was ransacked.
Morales had to abide by the OAS audit and endorsed a new election. But it was too late: a military coup forced him from office. But the OAS, the media, the opposition, and the United States, who backed the OAS at every point, are complicit in all of this. It's a travesty.
Here's another good source: the National Democratic Institute, hardly a left-leaning place has a manual on how to observe quick counts. Much of what the OAS has done in its observation and audit is warned against in here: ndi.org/sites/default/…
Another good thread:
A lot of people have been telling me Twitter is blocking specific tweets in this thread. I don't know if this is because of the anti-Morales bots that suddenly appeared. I will post both parts of the thread in a thread reader.
First: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1193703…
First: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1193703…
