You could fund local pro-democracy groups. The opposition prefers using these local groups to oversee elections.
Alternatively, there are international election observer teams made of experts and government officials. You could fund these teams to monitor the elections in Myca. Myca’s president says she prefers these international teams.
Once you factor in U.S. humanitarian aid commitments, you only have enough money left in Myca’s aid budget to fund one or the other.
Both international election observers and properly trained locals are equally professional.
Funding local observers would empower Mycan civil society and strengthen democracy. It would also please the leader of the opposition party, who may be the next president of this important graphite-trading partner. But there’s no guarantee that he’ll win. He has firm support in the east, but the current president has firm support in the west.
Funding international observers would be a goodwill gesture toward the current president and would strengthen the U.S. relationship with her.
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The nation of Georgia invited the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to monitor their elections in 2003. OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) deployed an election observation mission.
