Presidential elections in Colombia will not have an international audit

The electoral justice Colombia confirmed this Tuesday that the presidential elections on May 29 will not have an international audit of the counting software, a guarantee especially demanded by the campaign of the leftist candidate Gustavo Petro.

Contracting the audit, “a few days before election day, becomes unfeasible,” Luis Guillermo Pérez, magistrate of the National Electoral Council (CNE), made up of representatives of political parties, told the media.

“There has been no State commitment to carry this forward, but that is why we urge the political parties to assume their responsibility as well,” Pérez explained.

“Name your witnesses” and “make your auditors work so that there is no doubt that the elections will be guaranteed,” he asked the groups of each campaign before a decision that, he assures, “does not affect the electoral process.”

Meanwhile, the person in charge of the National Registry of Civil Status, Alexander Vega, announced that the entity that organizes the elections has its own oversight office.

“We are responsible for our audit for Sunday’s elections, the firm McGregor is working it correctly,” quoted the entity’s Twitter account.

As of Wednesday, “all the international observation missions” will arrive in the country, added Vega.

The Registrar’s Office also extended until Friday the deadline for parties to apply for electoral witnesses at the 102,152 polling stations, as part of a state guarantee plan.

The Petro campaign, a favorite in the polls, had demanded an external audit of the presidential software from the Registrar on May 17, given the inconsistencies in the preliminary count in the recent legislative elections that, in principle, subtracted votes from the coalition that the leftist leads.

“It was an additional guarantee that, it seems, is not going to be given,” Alfonso Prada, the head of the leftist campaign’s debate, said in a video released on social networks.

“The government turned (the resources) late, it did not give this issue the due importance,” Prada emphasized.

The CNE itself requested the independent audit in early April and the process had progressed to the allocation of resources by the finance ministry and the presentation of five proponents, according to Vega Rocha.

Although voting is manual in Colombia, the results are processed and transmitted through two digital programs designed by private contractors.

Several civil organizations have questioned the transparency of these programs and ask to review their source code.

Petro, a 62-year-old senator and former guerrilla, leads the voting intention for the first round, although without enough support to avoid the ballot on June 19.

The former mayor of Medellín (2016-2019) Federico Gutiérrez, candidate for the coalition of right-wing parties, would be his rival in the second round, according to polls.

Source: Elcomercio

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