Colombian electoral authorities on Friday have ordered a review of the ballot count of mayoral elections in the central Colombian city of Pereira after a video surfaced with evidence of irregularities in the counting process.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) ordered that the vote counting process, which is still being carried out, be reviewed “with a magnifying glass,” however the body ruled out a repetition of elections in the capital of the Risaralda department.
The president of the CNE, Joaquin Jose Vives, said that the order was given “to suspend the declaration of the election until after a review.”
For now, the election overseer has been ordered to abstain from officially declaring Enrique Vasquez, mayor-elect and winner of the election.
However “under no circumstances” will the elections in Pereira be repeated. Colombia’s Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras requested that candidates who lost in Sunday’s elections not provoke unrest and disturbances.
