The right, which had suffered an electoral debacle, shouted to the heavens through the voices of two former presidents, Andrés Pastrana, and Álvaro Uribe
The main electoral authority in Colombia, the registrar, Alexander Vega, was very close to placing this nation in first place among the countries considered banana producers. Pressured by high state authorities and by the right, Vega intended to make a recount of the 17 million votes cast on March 13 in elections that elected representatives in the Senate and Congress, in addition to three consultations of coalitions of parties to designate their candidates for the presidential elections on May 29.
The scandal began in the process of pre-counting the votes on March 13. Gustavo Petro, leftist leader and main favorite to govern the country in the next four years representing the coalition of the Historical Pact, warned that in 29,000 polling stations he had not obtained a single vote, something that according to statisticians is at least rare. Petro had won a comfortable and historic victory, but true to his style of denouncing every irregularity he discovers, he dropped his strangeness on social networks. When the vote was taken, the coalition of the Historical Pact ended up adding three more seats and went from 16 to 19 representatives in the Senate. He was right.
The right wing, which had suffered an electoral debacle, shouted to the heavens through the voices of two former presidents, Andrés Pastrana, and Álvaro Uribe, the man who held power between 2002 and 2010, and who has supposedly led since the shadow the threads of the government of Iván Duque, current president. Both wanted to turn around Petro’s complaint and watered the seed of electoral fraud in a pitiful way.
Uribe wrote: «These elections leave all mistrust behind. Adding to the inconsistencies is the overwhelming vote for Petrismo in drug-trafficking zones. This result cannot be accepted. Without any evidence he launched his poison dart at Petro. The Duque government and the registrar itself did not turn a deaf ear to the comment and immediately proposed a recount of the votes.
The country was put on alert. What was brewing had never been seen. Opening that Pandora’s box could have unfortunate consequences. Many politicians agreed in declaring that a recount of votes, without judges or witnesses and without their custody, “was a trap for democracy.” Other voices went further and affirmed that the recount of the votes meant a measure that opened the door to the greatest robbery in the history of this country.
At the same time, Uribe continued his online attack against Petro: “Doctor Petro, win the elections, don’t try to steal them.” Petro replied immediately: “The thief judges by his condition.”
Luckily, the National Commission for Electoral Guarantees decided on Tuesday to throw back the idea of the recount after 14 of the political groups rejected the measure, and showed their full support for the scrutiny that, if it had been affected by anything, it had been due to failures. in the design of the ballot papers and in the poor transmission of data.
Alexander Vega, the main electoral authority, had no choice but to give up his idea of recounting the votes. He said that he did not feel defeated. Quite the contrary: «I feel like a winner that most of the parties have not accepted my request, because the point of honor is consensus. And if that request was to generate it, it is satisfactory for the electoral process.”
What Vega will not be able to avoid is that his credibility and responsibility at the head of the electoral process are seriously affected. In the midst of the scandal surrounding the vote recount proposal, it became public opinion that the registrar’s father had been convicted of buying votes in 2013. It is Colombia, the country where there are millions of people who use the phrase: “I don’t neither of my shadow.” Suspicion has been installed in this country for a long time, which is why what has happened this week blushes many but surprises no one.
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