Board of Experts 2023
The Board of Experts is made up of prestigious specialists from the region, with extensive and proven experience in different areas of electoral issues, such as electoral integrity, political financing, gender, inclusion and accessibility, electoral campaigns, technology, electoral observation, among others.
The experts have advised or currently advise national and subnational electoral bodies, as well as other democratic institutions, and make up a consultative body in which our organization constantly relies on issues related to the mission of achieving transparent elections in the Americas and the world.
Leandro Querido
Founder
Alejandra Lázzaro
Argentina
Sabrina de Paula Braga
Brazil
Rosario Baptista
Bolivia
Richard Soudriette
United States
Gabriela de León Farías
Mexico
Marthadela Tamayo
Cuba
José Enrique Delgado
Venezuela
These are the members of the Board of Experts of Transparencia Electoral 2023:
Leandro Querido
Master’s degree in Electoral Law from the University of Castilla La Mancha, Spain. Political scientist from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he also worked as a teacher at the School of Political Science. He served as Executive Director of Electoral Transparency (2013-2023). Author of the book “How Voting Works in Cuba” and co-author of “How Voting Works in Venezuela” and “36 Years of Presidential Elections in Argentina.” He has compiled many other works on electoral topics. Leandro was a co-founder of Electoral Transparency Civil Association, along with a group of professionals and teachers from the University of Buenos Aires specialized in electoral issues. He has been called upon on several occasions as an electoral observer and as Methodological Coordinator of Electoral Observation Missions of the Organization of American States (OAS) for elections throughout the hemisphere. He currently works as a teacher at the University of Development in Chile (UDD) and as Manager of Institutional Affairs at the Electoral Management Institute (IGE) of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Alejandra Lázzaro (Argentina)
Doctor of Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). She is a professor of Constitutional Law and Comparative Political Theory at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), and of Human Rights at the National University of Luján (UNLU). She was Secretary of the National Electoral Chamber, and has been a speaker at more than 40 national and international congresses and seminars on electoral regimes, political parties, financing and gender. She was an electoral facilitator for the BRIDGE Project (Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections) granted by the United Nations, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and International IDEA. She currently works as Deputy Secretary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Argentine Republic.
Sabrina de Paula Braga (Brasil)
Lawyer from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil (UFMG). She is Professor of Political Law at the same University, and Legal Analyst at the Regional Electoral Tribunal of Minas Gerais (TRE-MG) from June 2007. As of May 2018, she acts as Head of the Electoral Registry Office of Electoral Zone no. 312 of the state of Minas Gerais. She is part of the Brazilian Academy of Electoral and Political Law (ABRADEP) and the American Conference of Subnational Electoral Organizations for Electoral Transparency (CAOESTE).
Rosario Baptista (Bolivia)
She has a degree in Legal and Political Sciences from the Universidad Mayor de San Simón (1990) with training in human rights, gender and international labor regulations (ILO). She was a consultant for various United Nations agencies (ILO, UNHCR, UNDP, FAO, UNICEF, UN Women), and for national and international organizations (European Commission, Construir Foundation, Fredrich Ebert Foundation, Women’s Coordinator, International IDEA, among others). She was an advisor to different Commissions of the Chamber of Deputies and the Ministry of Labor in Bolivia. She has experience drafting laws and public policies on human rights, especially those of women and indigenous peoples. She has carried out comparative legal analysis and more than 60 investigations related to the exercise of human rights, she has published essays and opinion articles in different newspapers and specialized magazines. She is a member of the Andean Commission of Jurists and the Association of Electoral Magistrates of America. She was a Member of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, appointed by the Bolivian Legislative Assembly (2019-2021).
Richard Soudriette (Estados Unidos)
Graduated in Political Science from the University of Tulsa, he has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma. He was a founding member and adviser of the Association of Electoral Officials of Europe (ACEEEO), dissolved in 2022 after the lack of consensus to set a position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was a founder of the World Election Organization (GEO) in 1999 and the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network in 1998. He was Co-Founder of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), where he was President from 1988 to 2007. Before joining IFES, he served as chief of staff to a member of the US Congress and director of the US Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic and Paraguay. He served as a member of the US Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee for the Promotion of Democracy (2006-2008). He was president of the Center for Diplomacy and Democracy (2009-2015) in Colorado Springs, USA. He was president of the Electoral Advisory Council (IEAC) of the company SGO Smartmatic (2014-2018). He is currently an international advisor to the World Association of Electoral Bodies (A-WEB), and has received honors from the International Center for Parliamentary Studies and the University of Paris for his work on electoral processes.
Gabriela de León Farías (México)
Graduated from the Faculty of Jurisprudence of the Autonomous University of Coahuila. During her period as President Counselor of the Coahuila Electoral Institute (2015-2022), the organization developed its own electronic ballot box that became a reference in the country due to its integrity, and requested by the National Electoral Institute (INE) for elections in other States of the Federation. In that same period, 165 local elections were organized in four ordinary electoral processes, without ever giving rise to the need to organize extraordinary processes. In February 2021, she was elected Vice President of the Association of Electoral Institutions of the Federative Entities (AIEEF) of Mexico for the period 2021 – 2023. She is a member of the American Conference of Subnational Electoral Organizations (ACSEO).
Marthadela Tamayo (Cuba)
Bachelor of Education, English Language Mention, graduated from the José Martí Vocational Pre-University Institute of Exact Sciences (IPVCE). Marthadela is an activist for Human Rights in Cuba. Both she and her family have been victims of beatings, interrogations and psychological torture inflicted by State Security. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued precautionary measures in favor of her and her husband, the musician and activist Osvaldo “Navy Pro” Navarro, due to the risk of irreparable damage to her rights on the island. She currently resides in Cuba and directs the Citizen Committee for Racial Integration (CIR) and the group of Electoral Rights Observers (ODE).
José Enrique Delgado (Venezuela)
He is a Social Communicator from the University of Zulia (LUZ). He taught at the University of Zulia (LUZ), the Cecilio Acosta Catholic University (UNICA), the Santa Rosa Catholic University (UCSAR) and the Santa María University (USM). He was Head of Information for the Press Department of the Niños Cantores del Zulia Regional Television Channel (1990-1993) and journalist for the Petróleos de Venezuela Public Affairs Organization, PDVSA (1993-2003). He is Co-Author of the book “Así se vota en Venezuela”, the second installment of the series “This is how you vote” by Transparencia Electoral. He is currently the National Communication and Media Coordinator of Súmate Venezuela.
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