Look don't touch
An election observer's journey
Vote in Nicaragua was calmer, but still had its tense moments
By Meghan Sired
Touring voting stations in Nicaragua at 2 a.m. to check on complaints of voter intimidation and violence—with a reluctant driver and a wary partner in tow—is a task most would find nerve-racking. But luckily for Dr. Stephen Randall, director of the U of C’s Institute for United States Policy Research, he doesn’t scare easily.
And, as it turned out, the alleged rowdiness was just a few hundred teenagers celebrating in the streets.
“I wasn’t in any danger at all or else I wouldn’t have done it,” said Randall, who was an international election observer with the Carter Center during the Nicaraguan election in November.
“It’s one of those occasions when you want to feel comfortable with your Spanish and you want to feel comfortable just in your ability to engage people in a sensitive situation, so that you’re not threatening them and so you don’t get threatened in return.”
Such drama isn’t always the way for election observers, whose role is to observe elections and report what they see, but not to interfere with the process. Randall would know—he’s been an observer at eight international elections, including another in Nicaragua 17 years ago. That vote was more violent, since there was fighting still going on between the U.S.-backed Contras and the Sandinista National Liberation Front.
Randall remembers one instance when he and his partner had to go to the top of a hill in order to get reception to radio in the election results of one polling station—in the midst of gun fire in the dark of night.
“Our driver was not impressed. He got out of the vehicle and laid down on the ground, to avoid any stray shots, as we radioed in the results,” he said.
Thankfully, the recent election was calmer. Randall was there for seven days, based in the department of Carazo. Voter turnout was comparatively low at 70 percent.
Randall suggests this was because there was a general expectation that Daniel Ortega, leader of Sandinista National Liberation Front, was going to lose in the first round and could not win a runoff election, so supporters of the other parties didn’t feel so strongly compelled to vote. However, in the end, Ortega gained 38 percent in the first round, sufficient to avoid the runoff.
In total, Randall has served with the United Nations in international election supervision in Nicaragua, 1990, and Cambodia, 1993; with the Organization of American States in El Salvador, 1991, and Venezuela, 1993; and with the Carter Center in Jamaica, 1997, Venezuela, 2004, and Nicaragua, 2006.
In Cambodia in 1993, Randall was escorted by military personnel and had to be trained on what to do if he found himself in a land-mine field.
Guards with heavy machine guns surrounded the polling stations. One station Randall was at had machine gun nests set up 100 yards away. “We had flack jackets, helmets and bullet-proof vests. I was cautious and wary as opposed to scared, but at the same time I felt good that we were making a difference,” he says.
For Randall, election observation provides an opportunity not only to put into practice what one knows about the electoral process academically, but also to provide public service.
“The University of Calgary prides itself on being an international university, and the several university faculty members who have, over the years, worked in international elections contribute in important ways to that reputation,” said Randall.