Colombia’s election observers warned on Thursday that the May 29 presidential elections could trigger a crisis because of “systematic discrepancies” in the vote count.
The Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) said that votes that were cast in the March 13 congressional elections don’t appear in the preliminary results announced by the national registry.
Opposition party “Historic Pact” found 500,000 votes after scrutinizing 29,000 ballot boxes that contained zero votes for the party in the preliminary Senate results.
National registrar Alexander Vega has said that this discrepancy was due to “human errors,” a design flaw in the Senate form to report votes to the National Registry and fraud by jurors.
The National Registry said Tuesday that it had asked the Inspector General’s Office and the prosecution to investigate thousands of jurors on suspicion of election fraud.
Magistrates and accountants have been scrutinizing votes since March 13. (Image: Adriaan Alsema)
‘Vega’s claims and allegations make no sense’
MOE director Alejandro Barrios told W Radio on Thursday that Vega’s claims and allegations don’t explain the fake results he announced on election night.
According to Barrios, the disappeared House of Representatives votes can’t be explained by a design flaw in the Senate form, according to Barrios.
The fact that the failure to register votes almost exclusively affected opposition parties can’t be attributed to “human errors,” said the MOE director.
In Antioquia, they reported that there were 1,932 ballot boxes without Historic Pact votes, but as the scrutiny advances there are no longer 1,932 ballot boxes without votes but 480 at zero. And if we look at the Green Alliance party in Quindio, they reported that there were 144 ballot boxes at zero and when we proceed to scrutinize… this ends up being 36.
MOE director Alejandro Barrios
According to Barrios, the discrepancies in the House results imply that the opposition will be given more seats in the lower house than initially announced by the National Registry.
The Historic Pact has already been given four seats on top of the 16 they were granted after the preliminary count.
The MOE director demanded that Vega give “clear, precise and comprehensive answers” about the “data transfer process” to explain the “systematic discrepancies.”
Alejandra Barrios (Image: Zona Cero)
“A crisis could break out in the country”
In an interview with RCN Radio, Barrios warned that “a crisis could break out in the country” after the May 29 presidential election if the National Registry repeats the mistakes made in the congressional elections.
According to the MOE director, “this would be terrible” as anyone could claim the elections were rigged.
Considering the level of confrontation between the different political campaigns, and adding this to the distrust, a difference in the preliminary results and the scrutiny… would make it very difficult for citizens and political campaigns to consider the results acceptable.
MOE director Alejandra Barrios
Former President Alvaro Uribe said that his far-right party’s defeat in the congressional elections “can’t be accepted.”
Uribe claimed a “Venezuelan penetration to contribute to electoral fraud in Colombia” resulted in “votes for Petro’s party.”
The former president is being investigated by the Supreme Court for allegedly trying to rig the 2018 presidential elections with the help of a drug trafficking organization.
Recovering confidence in electoral authorities
Barrios stressed that “what is important is to recover confidence in the electoral process,” which has evaporated as a consequence of the irregularities.
The National Electoral Council, which oversees the scrutiny of the election results, said Wednesday that it has ordered an audit of the national registry software.
Vega refused to appear before Congress on Tuesday and has appeared in public only twice since the congressional election debacle.
Congressmen and organizations belonging to the Electoral Oversight Alliance demand the registrar’s resignation.
