MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentine opposition lawmakers to demand 'transparency' from the Electoral Court
In the northern province of Tucumán, election results remains in the news due to a contentious vote for governor 
“Proposals for Electoral Transparency 2015” was presented in document form in the Argentine Congress and on Monday will go before the Electoral Court 
Next 25 October Argentines will vote for the successor of Cristina Fernandez who will be stepping down after eight years on 10 December Argentine lawmakers from several opposition Lower House caucuses will appear on Monday before the National Electoral Court to present their “Inter-party agreement for Electoral Transparency”, an accord to avoid irregularities in October 25 presidential and legislative polls.
While in the northern province of Tucumán, election results remains in the news due to a contentious vote for governor, currently led by the Victory Front's Juan Manzur in the final recount, opposition politicians are scheduled to meet in the afternoon with Court authorities.
PRO figures Federico Pinedo and Patricia Bullrich, Adrián Pérez of the Renewal Front, Socialist Juan Carlos Zabalza, Radical Mario Negri, Fernando Sánchez of the Civic Coalition, the GEN's Omar Duclós and Luis Lusquiños, representing Federal Commitment, will be at the encounter.
“Proposals for Electoral Transparency 2015” was presented in document form last week during a press conference in the Argentine Congress, according to a statement released by UCR caucus chief Negri.
Among the measures demanded by the opposition for the general elections is the mandatory restocking of ballots for each and every political space; the replacement of the telegrams sent by the Post Office by a Count Record; and the presence of party observers “in every vote collection centre of the Post Office.”
The controversial results in the province of Tucuman where ballot boxes disappeared and so did monitoring cameras, plus other irregularity claims in the Bariloche mayor elections in Patagonia, have increased demands for electoral reform in Argentina.
Next October 25 Argentines will be voting for the successor of president Cristina Fernandez, plus half the Lower House, a third of the Senate, several provincial governorships and councilors all across the country. The winner of the presidential race needs 45% of valid ballots or 40% plus a ten point difference over the runner up. If this is not the case a runoff between the two most voted candidates takes place on 22 November and on 10 December the successor of Cristina Fernandez takes office.
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Read all comments“...ballot boxes disappeared and so did monitoring cameras, plus other irregularity claims...”
Sep 14th, 2015 - 05:23 pm 0I've heard of:
- Empty ballot boxes
- Ballot boxes with 100% votes for one person
- A person “winning” a ballot with more votes than the number of votes counted.
- Issuing of fake ballot papers (so a person thinks that they are voting for X but their vote is actually invalid).
- Theft of ballot papers (“we've run out of ballot papers for the party you want to vote for, so vote for this one instead”)
The system is clearly vulnerable to much irregularity and therefore needs to be improved, but at what level of irregularity does a ballot become invalid? The electorate needs confidence in the system for it to work properly and clearly the population of Tucuman doesn't trust the process. The problem with a recount is that you may be able to correct some of the damage but probably not all of it.
Fix the system, vote again and arrest anyone suspected of interfering - that's how a true democracy would work.
“Argentine opposition lawmakers to demand 'transparency' from the Electoral Court”
Sep 14th, 2015 - 05:23 pm 0In TDC?
Good luck with that! Ha, h, ha.
Reminds me of a couple of years ago I was guide for a coach load of visiting argentines off a cruise ship as I can speak reasonable Spanish. During a general chit-chat a number of them were slagging off Christina - I said hang on a bit - somebody must have voted for her as she got in with a big majority?
Sep 14th, 2015 - 10:29 pm 0The answer I got from the tourists was - ” you do not understand - in our country, elections are - well - different - it is the how votes are counted !!!
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