The President of Colombia, Ivan Duque, asked this Wednesday that the resources allocated to the international audit for this Sunday’s elections are destined for that purpose, after the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced this Tuesday that a few days before the elections that “becomes unfeasible.”
The president made a call to the electoral authorities “so that the resources that have already been transferred are allocated to contracting this external audit and that its results be transmitted to the country.” As he explained, on May 2 the government transferred the resources. “It is a duty of the electoral organization to carry out this external audit and give the Colombian people peace of mind and credibility,” he said.
“We publicly requested that an external audit be carried out so that they could review the congressional election process and especially the software. That request was also made interpreting the feelings of many citizens and representatives of parties and movements,” the president assured.
Duque pointed out that the electoral organization is the one that must guarantee that this process “is conducted in accordance with the law and the Colombian constitution” and that in what corresponds to the government “all security guarantees have been provided.”
Little time
The CNE reported that “an international audit has not been selected or hired for the 2022 elections,” as has been publicly reported. In a statement released this Tuesday, the president of the council, César Augusto Abreo Méndez, decided to accompany the proposals of the Attorney General’s Office and “as a consequence, the The National Registry of Civil Status will not hire the international audit for now“, due to the “short time before the elections”.
According to the CNE, as soon as they received the resources, they began “the pertinent procedures and the elaboration of the previous studies for the contracting process, with the accompaniment of the Attorney General’s Office, through the preventive control mechanism.”
Of the two offers received, the first declined to continue because its technicians do not speak Spanish and with the second “it was decided to return the contracting process” because it did not provide the required documents.
The The National Registry of Civil Status has its own audit performed by McGregor. According to the national registrar, Alexander Vega, the firm “is working correctly.”
Vega ratified this Tuesday “that all the guarantees are given for the citizens and the political campaigns” and assured that “the results of the drills were optimal and progress is being made in the training of the juries.”
From the Regional News Agency.