Senior Bolivian Electoral Court Official Resigned Despite Uncertainty

he Vice-President of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Antonio Costas, resigned Tuesday in the midst of sharp criticism of the agency's work for stopping the preliminary countdown on Sunday, which prompted a criticism of transparency in the counting of the vote.

The resignation was motivated by "the foolish decision of the supreme supreme court to suspend the publication of the results of the Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission System (TREP)," Costas said in a letter to Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García, who is also president. advice. Congress, which designates the members of the TSE. "I did not participate [en esa decisión] although he is vice-president of the TSE, "said Costas in the note.

The determination to stop the flow of information produced in me "disturbances, if we had done a neat job, a neat job, we would have reached 94% in the TREP," he told Pan American private radio. It was a decision "rush not publish [los datos y estacionarlos en 84%] and to do it a day later, provoking a situation as complex as this one has no rationality, "added Garcia.

When the quick account has been suspended, the TREP represented 84% of the valid votes and gave 45.28% to the president Evo Morales, more than 38%, 16 of his rival Carlos Mesa, describing an almost certain second round. After resuming the inexplicable stop of 20 hours, the count shows a change in the result that predicts the reelection of Morales in the first round.

The suspension of the data flow has enormously tainted the honesty of the work of the TSE. The OAS observation mission asked the electoral body Sunday "to explain why the transmission of preliminary results has been interrupted and that the process of publication of the calculation data is taking place smooth".

They request an audit of the OAS

On Tuesday, the government Evo Morales asked the Organization of American States (OAS) to verify Sunday's elections, whose quick count tends to confirm the re-election of the president in the first round: "As a government, we want the whole process to have the necessary transparency," they said.

The organization, for its part, convened a session of its Permanent Council in Washington on Wednesday at the request of Brazil, Canada, the United States, Colombia and Venezuela (representative of Juan Guaidó), to consider "the situation in Bolivia ".

In response, the Bolivian government asked the OAS to send "as soon as possible" a technical mission to La Paz in order to verify "one by one the minutes" of Sunday's votes, indicated the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diego Pary. In a letter to OAS Secretary General Luis AlmagroBolivia asked that "as soon as possible, it should set up a commission to monitor the entire process of official vote counting of the October 20 elections," Pary said.

They are preparing a national strike

A group of civil organizations from nine departments of Bolivia called for paralyzing its activities to protest indefinitely against the provisional outcome of the elections. "We go unemployed until you say", announced Luis Fernando Camacho, chairman of the Civic Committee Pro-Santa Cruz, in front of several opposition activists in the course of an act transmitted by the local media, after accepting the measure with his peers from the rest from the country. The measure will come into effect Wednesday and since then, "you do not need to move an ant to Santa Cruz"he explained.

S.D.