Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE) raised the alarm about possible voter fraud in multiple provinces and the country’s second largest city, Medellin.
The alarm was raised about suspicious increases in voter registrations.
Dramatic voter registration increases could indicate that local politicians are either faking voter registrations, paying people to register or even registering people from other parts of the country.
Provinces on alert
The alarm was raised about municipalities in the Antioquia, Choco, Nariño and Norte de Santander provinces because of dramatic voter registration increases ahead of October’s local and regional elections.
The most dramatic rise was registered in Nariño where more than 10 times as many voters were registered compared to the same period before the 2015 elections.
Alerts over voter registration spikes
Source: National Electoral Council
Capital cities on alert too
In Medellin, the CNE registered 30,624 voter registrations since October last year. This is more than 4.7 times as many than the 6437 who were registered four years ago.
Other capital cities that saw atypical increases in voter registrations were Cucuta in Norte de Santander with a 590% increase and Pasto, the capital of Nariño, with a 340% increase.
The most radical increase was registered in the town of Cordoba, Nariño, which saw 2,962% more voters registered than four years ago.
The alerts sent out by the CNE come days after President Ivan Duque announced a series of measures to prevent the corruption of the local elections.
Duque rolls out strategies to curb corruption and violence in Colombia’s local elections
Among those plans was an Immediate Electoral Reaction Group led by Interior Minister Nancy Patricia Gutierrez.
The main threat to our democracy is the possible capture of the State by organized crime, through acts such as illegal financing of campaigns, corruption and various forms of violence against the community and leaders.
Interior Minister Nancy Patricia Gutierrez
The MOE, an independent electoral observation organization, which has also been registering voter fraud and political violence since October last year, warned the government that it was witnessing an increase in both.
Colombia will take to the polls on October 27 to elect governors, mayors, deputies and city council members. Some 130,000 people are taking part in these elections.