Global Courant 2023-05-13 16:00:46
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal published the institutional agreements for electoral observers to register and be accredited as such for the elections to be held on June 25.
There are four agreements that give life to electoral observation, because it is divided into four modalities that are national, international, independent and foreign observation. The requirements are similar between one and the other, as are the prohibitions and obligations of the accredited.
Those who seek to participate must be accredited by the TSE, in accordance with the requirements. The surveillance they exercise begins from the registration stage of the candidates, as was carried out in this context by the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE-Gt) and Electoral Viewpoint.
On election day, the missions deploy their members throughout the territory to verify aspects of logistics and procedures in the voting centers, counting, transmission of preliminary data, and publication of preliminary results.
The processes followed by the Vote Receiving Boards (JRV), government actions to comply with security and access to voting centers, actions to intimidate voters, order inside and outside the centers, influx of voters, the process the qualification of votes, the transmission of the minutes, are some of the aspects that the observers verify.
Derived from surveillance, in the case of national missions, they must present a report to the association to which they belong, these can be published to public opinion by the TSE, however, they may not have any legal effect on the process or its results. As for the international ones, they present the reports with the respective recommendations to strengthen the electoral process.
About the bans
The agreements also specify the prohibitions that observers have, such as slandering the electoral authorities, obstructing the processes, declaring the victory of any organization, making personal statements about the process, fulfilling the role of members of a board, influencing in the intention to vote, intervene in logistics, subaccredit, carry firearms and transgress the security processes and restrictions in the National Information Center.
The independent analyst Jorge Wong said: “there are always representatives of the TSE in the voting centers and they write down and transfer the case to where it corresponds so that it can be followed up, if it is something very serious it could go to the Public Ministry (MP) for investigation” and exemplified some type of physical aggression.
The same prohibitions are applied to international missions that visit the country.
Requirements
For Guatemalan citizens, surveillance in the electoral process is a right, the paperwork to be submitted is a copy of the corresponding application approved by the Plenary of Magistrates or Coordinating Magistrate, a photocopy of the Personal Identification Document (DPI) and proof of have completed the virtual course on electoral observation of the Electoral Institute.
In addition, being a Guatemalan citizen in full enjoyment of their civil and political rights, not being part of any political organization or being affiliated, not being a candidate for a position of popular election and presenting a photograph.
The missions must send the request for authorization to the plenary session and the group must jointly send the data requested by each interested person and later, it will be the TSE that will issue the credentials endorsing the participation of each citizen.
Wong explained that the Court is in charge of corroborating with its own mechanisms that the citizens who showed interest in being observers are not affiliated with any political party.
On the other hand, with international observation missions, it is the TSE that sends an invitation to the organization to be part of the process, or the association sends a letter of intent that must be accepted. The requirements are limited to the acceptance of the letter, having a passport, and in case a visa is necessary, and a photograph.
On May 8, the signing of the agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS) was carried out. The mission is headed by the former foreign minister of Paraguay, Eladio Loizaga. In a statement they reported that approximately 90 people will make up the team, this is the 21st mission that visits the country in an electoral process.
According to Wong, as a new electoral process takes place, they tend to provoke more impulsive emotions than the previous one. “Before, the climate of the elections was more cordial and now they have become more agitated, more passionate,” he contributed.
observation abroad
In the agreements published by the TSE there are also the specifications for electoral observation abroad, they can be associations with non-partisan political purposes, citizen organizations or, in any case, groups of 20 or more citizens. The established obligations and prohibitions are the same for the missions that will monitor the process in Guatemalan territory.
Still no number of accredited
At the moment, the TSE is in the process of reviewing documentation, so it does not yet have a number of accredited. The goal set by the electoral authority was 22,000 observers.
However, in the previous process there were only 2,610 and in 2015 with close to 9,800 in the first round and 8,238 for the second round.
OAS calls for campaign to be based on government plans
Loizaga, through a statement on May 10, urged the candidates to base their campaigns on their government plans and not on personal attacks on other contenders. In the same way, he asked that an enthusiasm free of violence be fostered in the public.
“Invites the TSE to continue working to guarantee the proper development of the different phases of this electoral process and the citizenry to actively participate by informing themselves about the campaign proposals,” the statement said.
