Global Courant
The Departmental Electoral Boards (JED) concluded with the review hearings, reaffirming the preliminary results of the elections of June 25 and thus safeguarded the electoral process, for the consideration of observation groups.
However, the criticism goes towards the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), which, according to the sources consulted, did not know how to guide the voting event on June 25 and caused it to end in amparo actions and complaints before the Public Ministry (MP ).
Last Saturday the Constitutional Court (CC) ordered that the review hearings and the comparison of minutes be repeated, because nine parties led by the pro-government party Vamos raised doubts about the work of the Vote Receiving Board (JRV).
Along with that, also eight parties, again led by Vamos, filed a complaint before the MP that was assigned to the Electoral Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, which has not been informed about the movements that the case has had.
Now, with the work completed by the JED and the new review of minutes, it is up to the TSE to inform the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) that the provisional amparo order was complied with, after the CC will order that it be this body that knew the final protection.
The amparo that opened a new review of the minutes was known last Saturday night, however, the TSE issued a statement a day later.
Lack of presence of the TSE
Although each JED enjoys autonomy, the observation groups consider that it would have been prudent for the TSE plenary to give some type of guidance, in the midst of an unprecedented process of reviewing the minutes.
“The TSE has to establish clear rules on how the Lepp is managed, and what are the processes where doubts can be resolved, that was missing, there was little presence of the TSE and be that institution that clarifies and says how the Electoral Law is complied with and of Political Parties (Lepp)”, said Ricardo González, a member of the National Civic Movement (MCN).
For González, it would have been necessary for the electoral authorities to be present in the entire legal problem: “the TSE had to manifest the fact that it was supreme; If it really is an institution that has all the hegemony in the electoral process, I think that they lacked a bit of communication with the population”.
Pedro Cruz, president of the organization Primero Guatemala, who is part of Foro Guatemala, expressed a similar reading. “The TSE must realize that they are not all-powerful, let themselves be advised, and above all, see how to recover the trust of the citizenry, especially for the second round, because many people are discouraged.”
It will affect volunteering
The biggest fear of the observation groups is that with the accusations, which have sometimes led to attacks on the different volunteers, there will not be the same civic motivation for the second round and for future electoral processes.
“The TSE is to blame, because instead of showing signs of transparency, of trust, they themselves began to weaken the process,” said Cruz, recalling the procurement processes questioned last September, where the Court decided not to use Guatecompras for the acquisitions.
For González, this fear is latent, and the TSE needs to improve its communication processes so that all those volunteers feel accompanied and agreed by the TSE.
“We want to remember that distrusting the work that the citizens did does great damage to the transparency of our electoral process, our process works because it is precisely the citizen who is in each part of the process, safeguarding the vote,” added Cruz.
For his part, Francisco Menéndez, deputy coordinator of the Electoral Observation Program (Proe), of the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations (Cacif), affirms that his observation mission has already collected several comments that they will present to the TSE to improve the following events. These suggestions will be focused, says Menéndez, on training processes that, if carried out successfully, would not have to affect future volunteering.
“If we give adequate training and support to the different electoral boards and to the boards that receive votes, to guarantee that these problems do not happen again, there would be no major problem in finding volunteers. Guatemala’s electoral system is strong, solid, they are citizens counting citizens’ votes, ”he concluded.
the day
Yesterday, on the third day of the scrutiny review hearings, it took place without the same presence of political party prosecutors, the number of general secretaries was even less, unlike the first and second days.
The electoral observation groups also decreased, while the comparison of tally sheets was carried out in the two largest boards: the one in Guatemala and the one in the Central District.
Yesterday the five-day period to develop the review hearings ordered by the CC also ended, which until now has prevented the results and the adjudication of the charges from being made official.
Today the TSE plenary will hold a first meeting with the national prosecutors of the political parties after the voting event on June 25, which was widely questioned by political organizations. There is currently no proposed public agenda for the meeting.
