Global Courant
The magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) affirm that they no longer have custody of the vote, this after agents of the Public Ministry (MP) forcibly stole minutes 4 and 8 of the five types of elections from the first round of the past June 25th.
The MP carried out the search procedure for more than 20 hours at the MP’s headquarters, where he searched for the documents that validated the elections in Guatemala.
The TSE asked for time to scan the documents and thus continue fulfilling its function of safeguarding the vote, but the MP agents did not accept this and seized the electoral documents that contain the results.
“I am very sad to spend the whole night, they had access to everything they wanted,” explained Judge Blanca Alfaro after the MP seized the documents.
“We cannot say that as a court we have the protection – of the vote – because we no longer have it,” the judge emphasized after touring the TSE headquarters, where she said that the prosecutors “scrambled” all the documents.
The magistrate explained that she had to defend the TSE spokesperson, Gerardo Ramírez, because he was threatened by prosecutors, in case the spokesperson informed the media about the raid.
“They tell him at that moment that they are going to put him in prison (…) so be careful and I was passing information to you,” said the magistrate.
Even in a moment of tension during the raid, Alfaro ended up on the floor when struggling with prosecutors in defense of the records, “we are very sorry and I tell you that my back is seriously injured, I have a spinal operation.”
The results do not change
Although the TSE does not know the intentions of the raids and the theft of the documents, Alfaro was emphatic that the results, which have already been made official, are not going to change.
“The results have been duly made official, they are already certified, the cards have already been given and that cannot be changed with any diligence”
The judge added that now they do not know “what could happen,” but stressed that the results will not change.
Magistrate Gabriel Aguilera also criticized the MP’s action, and was one of the electoral officials who formed a human fence seeking to prevent the release of the minutes that “are prepared by Guatemalan citizens,” said Aguilera, explaining the legality of the process.
The official added that “they took the documents that guarantee the purity of the electoral process.”
According to the magistrates, the minutes will be returned next Wednesday.
