Reverse with changes in elections | The …

After the protest of most political parties of the opposition (especially the PJ) and a diplomatic agreement but firmly accepted by the National Electoral Chamber (CNE), the government of Mauricio Macri was forced to cancel the decrees They modified part of the electoral legislation. To prevent the document from being completed, the executive has issued a new decree in which, camouflaged in one of its articles, indicates that these changes will only be applicable in the 2021 legislative elections. Whatever the case may be, they will not come into effect. validity for this election, since the Peronism advanced to Page / 12 this will continue with the judicial complaint for unconstitutionality that is being handled by the court of María Romilda Servini de Cubría, the federal judge with electoral jurisdiction.

As this newspaper published a few weeks ago, virtually all opposition parties had protested to the CNE against the amendments provided for in decrees 45, 54 and 55 of 2019, which had amended the electoral regulations. and which had been published in January totally unnoticed. These changed the vote of Argentinian citizens living abroad, as well as persons deprived of their liberty and security forces who were forced to monitor the elections. Prior to the decree, the 100,000 soldiers badigned to guard the polling stations could not vote and, after Macri's decision, they would do so between seven and twelve days before. The 4,000 prisoners eligible to vote could vote but they did so on the day of the vote. Macri had arranged for them to do so before, in the same time frame as the election security forces. Finally, residents abroad have voted up to now at the nearest consulate and the government intended to vote by mail. They had to send their vote in an envelope without a piece of identification and an identification mechanism in another separate envelope. This decision potentially affected 360,000 residents of other countries, but according to official sources, only 14,000 people would have exercised their rights in 2017. All advance votes will be counted only during the final check. The PC objected that she would not be able to control or control identities during the voting.

But in addition, the decrees changed another essential point: the exhibits that were to be prepared on the day of the vote, which could have an impact on the completion of the provisional and definitive checks. On three documents to be prepared, everything was reduced to a "voting register", which would be scanned and transmitted electronically from the voting centers to the computer center. Thus, the "minutes of opening and closing" and the "certificate of control", which was signed by both the public authorities and the prosecutors, would cease to exist. The new document that the government intended to promote, called the "voting law", would only be initialed by the authorities of the council, without the intervention of party representatives. "If you do not have items on paper signed by the board and that party prosecutors do not have evidence to conduct the final exam in court," warned this newspaper , one of the participants at the meeting of the advisory council that led judges Alberto Dalla Vía and Santiago Corcuera at the end of March.

During the meeting with the chambers, opposition representatives shouted to the sky when they saw that the president was changing the electoral legislation by means of a simple decree. Especially as Congress needs special majorities to make changes in this area. With the diplomacy that characterizes it, the CNE has brought together the proposals formulated by the political parties (as well as by the federal electoral judges gathered at the meetings of December 6, 2018 and February 25). He last Friday released an agreement in which he praised the government's attempts to "integrate technology" into the electoral process and recalled that it was a position they always accompanied. Nevertheless, it has ratified its attributions on the realization of the final control (the provisional control remains in the hands of the Ministry of the Interior, despite the eternal claims of the creation of an independent body of the PEN) and has maintained the need to develop the documentation established in the legislation. In particular, I told him not to participate in the creation of these documents.

The blow hit the portfolio headed by Rogelio Frigerio, in charge of the electoral process, and by the Secretary for Political and Institutional Affairs, Adrián Pérez, who met with representatives of the political forces on February 22, more than a month later. published the decrees. It will be necessary to see now how the problem of the digitization of the telegrams and their transmission by electronic means arises, aspect on which different specialists in computer science alert.

For the moment, the government has until Friday to respond to the court of Servini de Cubria, which has responded to the proposal of the PJ. The prosecutor in charge of the case is Jorge Di Lello. What Macrismo is sure to do is to remove the "optional vote by mail for electors residing abroad" from the website argentina.gob.ar, presented as an "accomplishment" of the current administration.