The electoral administration bodies of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries have signed a set of commitments to fight disinformation and promote transparency in elections, the National Elections Commission (CNE) announced today.
In a communiqué sent to Lusa, the so-called Lisbon Charter also includes the intention to promote visits to countries that are going to have elections to organize electoral observation missions.
“Cooperating in the fight against disinformation to defend democracy, transparency and reliability of electoral processes, promoting advance visits to set up electoral observation missions and intensifying the relationship between counterpart electoral administration bodies are commitments made by the electoral administration bodies of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) with the signing of the Lisbon Charter,” the note reads.
The document was signed by the National Electoral Commission (Angola), the Supreme Electoral Court (Brazil), the National Electoral Commission (Cape Verde), the National Electoral Commission (Guinea-Bissau), the National Electoral Commission (Mozambique), the National Electoral Commission (Portugal) National Electoral Commission (Sao Tome and Principe) and National Electoral Commission (East Timor) in the context of the VI Assembly of the Network of Jurisdictional and Electoral Administration Organs of the CPLP (ROJAE-CPLP), which was held in Portugal and which brought together representatives of similar CNE entities of the Lusophone space.
The statement stresses that the Lisbon Charter “is the corollary of the activities developed in the General Assembly of ROJAE-CPLP in Portugal”, which discussed the issue of the press, elections and ‘fake news’ and “the need to strengthen democracy and freedom of information, press and expression in a context of affirmation of new technologies and artificial intelligence.
ROJAE-CPLP, created on December 13, 2018, brings together the jurisdictional and electoral administration bodies of the CPLP member countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste.