Colombia’s election chief must be replaced to avoid chaos in the presidential elections, according to a coalition of election observers.
The non-governmental Electoral Oversight Alliance (AVE) asked the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the State Council to replace National Registrar Alexander Vega ahead of the presidential elections on May 29.
Vega came under fire after irregularities in the March 13 congressional elections sunk public confidence in electoral authorities, according to Electoral Observation Mission.
The Electoral Oversight Alliance asked the courts to intervene after the national registrar refused to take responsibility and resign voluntarily.
The situation is so dramatic that it would be possible for the courts to study the possibility of an ad hoc registrar, at least for these two electoral events. It would send a very strong message not to leave this to the will of the registrar as many people have asked for his resignation, but in Colombia nobody involved in major scandals resigns.
AVE executive Leon Valencia
In a press conference, the AVE executives exposed the failures that led to the elections “disaster.”
The elections “disaster”
- Some 800,000 people couldn’t vote because they were unable to register their new address in the database of the National Registry.
- Some 23,000 of the 112,000 polling stations weren’t able to upload election results because of a design flaw in the voting sheet.
- The National Registry failed to adequately train jurors about how to fill in the voting sheets and upload them to the national voting database.
- People weren’t able to verify where to vote as the web application designed for this collapsed on the evening before the elections.
- Vega falsely claimed that the computer problems were due to an attack
- Vega called for a recount of votes after the chain of custody had already been lifted.
- Because of the failures, the results of the House of Representatives vote have yet to be announced.
The AVE executives said to be surprised that neither the Inspector General’s Office nor the Prosecutor General’s Office have opened investigations into Vega.
Unprecedented request
The non-government organizations said they have formally asked the courts to appoint an ad hoc registrar.
The request is unprecedented.
The presidents of the three courts are responsible for the election of the national registrar, but have never dismissed the country’s top election official.
Nobody knows how the appointment of an ad hoc registrar would affect the upcoming presidential elections.
The NGO’s believe that Vega’s may bungle the presidential elections.
As a consequence of the chaos in the congressional elections, aspiring members of the House of Representatives still don’t know whether they were elected.
The Electoral Oversight Alliance
Anti-Corruption Institute
The Anti-Corruption Institute is a renowned non-government organization (NGO) that is dedicated to investigating corruption.
Pares
Pares is an NGO that studies the relationship between democracy and violence.
Open Politics Extitute
The Open Politics Extitute is a non-government organization that is dedicated to the promotion of political inclusion.
State Council investigating Vega’s election
The State Council summed Vega to testify on Wednesday.
This hearing is not related to a 2019 request to dismiss the national registrar, which claims his election was illegal.
According to this lawsuit, Vega wasn’t qualified to apply for the job until the former presidents of the high courts changed the requisites at the last minute.
These allegedly illegal changes allowed Vega not just to apply for the job but be elected as national registrar.
The State Council effectively ignored the lawsuit for years until Vega’s apparent incompetence all but destroyed public confidence in the election authorities.
