For the OAS, the Bolivian elections of 2019 were rigged and “a hemispheric disgrace”

The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) said on Monday that of all the elections it has observed over the past decade, those of 2019 in Bolivia they were “the worst”.

This was stated in a statement by the Secretariat for the Strengthening of Democracy of this body, in which criticized the report commissioned by the Attorney General of Bolivia.

The OAS memo describes that year’s elections as a “hemispherical shame” by the accumulation of irregularities and “blatant manipulation” of the electoral process.

And he attacks the expert report commissioned by the Attorney General of the State of Bolivia to an investigation team in Spain, which concludes that “there was no manipulation” of the 2019 election results.

This team is the BISITE Deep Tech Lab research group of the General Foundation. of the University of Salamanca in Spain, by engineer Juan Manuel Corchado.

The report requested by the Office of the Attorney General contrasts with that presented by the OAS on November 10, 2019 which detected “very serious” irregularities in the process, such as the manipulation of the computer system for the transmission and calculation of the results.

The OAS General Secretariat assured on Monday that it would try to validate the irregularities and manipulations allegedly committed during these elections. by “extemporaneous studies” democracy constitutes a “serious affront”.

Although it criticizes the report requested by the Office of the Prosecutor and points out that it has “serious shortcomings”, the OAS General Secretariat recognizes that it has achieved such successes as confirm “serious findings” which she herself had already warned in her 2019 study on computing and to stress that there had been “unforgivable errors”.

Facts

Among these “serious finds” cites the use of two servers outside the technological structure established for the Preliminary Election Results Transmission (TREP) system.

“The expert report itself commissioned by the Public Prosecutor’s Office takes into account the extreme vulnerabilities of the system and the manipulations that have taken place, noting that it could be added to it, modify or delete data without leaving any proof “, underlines the OAS General Secretariat, then regrets that the academics who prepared the expert report contradict their own conclusion.

Indeed, he recalled, the experts underline in their analysis that there was no manipulation in the election results, although they indicate that manual changes were possible systems and databases, that unidentified people could make changes and not leave any traces, and that there was no supervision, among other things.

The OAS General Secretariat also listed a series of irregularities contained in its own report. such as the existence of clandestine servers, the burning of electoral material, inexplicable and unauthorized entries into the system, and weakening of electoral authority.

Therefore, he determines that “never” can be trusted in the 2019 elections.

Bolivia was plunged into a social and political crisis after the October 2019 elections, which were canceled by complaints that there had been alleged electoral fraud in favor of then-president Evo Morales.

Following the OAS report, which was released early in the morning of November 10, 2019, Morales first announced new elections and stepped down from the presidency hours later, claiming to be the victim of an alleged “coup”.

Source: EFE and AP

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