Electoral authority will request a recount of votes for the Senate in Colombia

Harassed by complaints of a alleged fraudthe head of the electoral authority in Colombia announced this Monday that he will request a recount of the votes for the Senate of the elections on March 13.

“Due to the countless inconsistencies in the forms (…) I will request again tomorrow (Tuesday) the recount of all the tables of the Senate of the Republic,” the national registrar, Alexander Vega, told the media.

In the last week, Vega has been the target of strong criticism from the country’s main political forces who denounce an alleged fraud in the vote.

On the one hand, presidential candidate and former guerrilla Gustavo Petro He has pointed out that in the pre-count of March 13 supposedly some 500,000 votes were not taken into account for the leftist candidates for the Senate and the Lower House.

Petro heads the Historical Pact, a coalition of leftist movements that achieved a historic bench of more than 40 parliamentarians, although the result could be higher.

(Also read: Petro has a nine-point lead over Gutiérrez in the poll for the Colombian Presidency)

Faced with this unprecedented advance, former right-wing president Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), head of the ruling Democratic Center, questioned the “Overwhelming vote of Petrismo” in an election that “leave all mistrust.”

Uribewhose party went from having 51 to 30 seats in the legislature, He called to ignore the results and asked for a recount.

“We are going to leave the country alone and all the political forces,” Vega said.

The registrar acknowledged that there was “human errors” by the electoral juries, who carried out “constant strikeouts on the form” where the results of each table are recorded, generating “inaccuracies”.

The NGO Electoral Observation Mission has criticized the lack of training for those responsible for counting the votes prior to the elections, while delegates from the European Union pointed out flaws in the design of the formats.

Vega denied that it is a systematic practice. “No votes have been lost, this is not a malicious act”he concluded.

On May 29, Colombians will elect the successor to President Iván Duque, in an election in which Petro is the overwhelming favorite to be the country’s first leftist president.

Source: AFP

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