Sister City Delegations To Cover Nicaragua Elections

On October 7 representatives of 15 groups with sister cities in Nicaragua met in Ann Arbor to coordinate their activities for the Feb. 25, 1990, elections in Nicaragua. The 15 groups are part of the Ad Hoc Coalition of Sister Cities for Election Observation in Nicaragua ( AHCSCEON), which was formed in order to provide first-hand observation of the elections.

The coalition is made up of 30 community-based delegations which plan to be on-site to see the election process for themselves in their own sister cities. They, in turn, will report back their findings to their communities. The 16-member, Arm Arbor-Juigalpa Sister City Committee will represent Ann Arbor in Juigalpa, Ann Arbor's sister city in Nicaragua.

At the Ann Arbor meeting, AHCSCEON agreed to use a common set of standards for observing the elections based on "Guidelines for International Electíon Observation" sponsored by the U.S . Agency for International Development. It was also decided that the various sister city delegations will convene in Managua directly after the election to issue a set of observations to be followed by a more detailed report. AHCSCEON is now in the process of seeking official accreditation from the Supreme Electoral Council, the independent government body responsible for administering the election.

The Sandinista government of Nicaragua has welcomed international observation of the election and has lobbied the UN to send observation teams. Leonor Huper, the Charge D' affaires of the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington, made a special trip to Ann Arbor to attend the October 7 meeting so that she could help with logistics and provide up-to-date information.