One month after the general election in Puerto Rico this week, it is shameful the atmosphere of strife and the erratic dynamics that prevails in the counting of votes. The situation of uncertainty generates, among other concerns, that not all the final certifications of the candidates elected by the people in the elections held last November 5 may be issued before January 2.
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The State Elections Commission, whose efficient performance in past decades was a model to be emulated in Latin America and other countries, pales in the midst of an unstoppable chain of mistakes whose genesis is a deficient electoral code, according to experts in voting processes, as well as officials of most political parties. Correcting this key obstacle will depend on the political will of the Legislative Assembly to be constituted in January.
To the imperfections of the current electoral law, documented before and after its approval without consensus, on June 20, 2020, are added slow responses from the presidency, insufficient personnel and defective equipment that delay procedures that in other jurisdictions are achieved in an agile way, with the support of technological tools with precise programming and rigorous controls, product of the advances of the digital era.
In the year that is about to end, elections have been held in dozens of countries without any major problems in accurately ascertaining the will of the voters in the short term. The most eloquent recent case was the elections in Uruguay. With an electoral participation of 90%, in this country of three million inhabitants, an accurate projection of the winners was known one hour after the closing of the voting centers.
In Puerto Rico, meanwhile, the operational regression of the electoral body evidenced failures only months after the approval of the new code, just in August 2020, when the disastrous precedent of paralyzing a primary vote due to delays in the supply of electoral materials at the voting centers took place. At present, in a string of pitfalls, the management of the CEE seems to ignore the jurisprudence on the adjudication of the vote by direct nomination, oversights persist in numerous voting records and unusual situations such as “disappearances of ballots” are denounced. The journalistic reports on the scrutiny reflect the lack of rigor in the handling of briefcases with the documents containing the will of the voters, the procedural impugnations do not abate and behaviors that look like deliberate obstructions are surfacing.
In view of this unsustainable panorama, in the short term it is urgent that the commissioners and the alternate president, in an effort of maximum responsibility, achieve initiatives that will allow to elucidate, once and for all, the disagreements that hinder the scrutiny and promote in an orderly manner the process that will allow to certify the winning candidates of all the legislative seats and mayoralties.
There are districts where the margin of votes is close, so the work in the counting tables requires a meticulous performance. This is the first step to restore confidence in electoral operations. It is a matter of adhering to transparent executions, governed by precise rules and enthusiastic teamwork.
In the past, fine-tuned procedures generated the consensus that is necessary today to reestablish cleanliness and transparency in the State Elections Commission, a fundamental institution for strengthening democracy in Puerto Rico.
We trust in a positive turnaround in the canvassing work and that the certifications, essential to complete a government transition without affecting the operations of essential services for the people, will be issued on time. Completing this stage will allow for the prompt continuation of fundamental projects for the well-being of the country and for new initiatives, according to the projections of the governor-elect and the new legislative composition, as well as of numerous municipal administrations.
In the new four-year term, it will be decisive to appoint a figure with full leadership to the presidency of the CEE, who will promote well-considered decisions to diligently manage the upcoming electoral operations. In addition, it will be essential to materialize the political will to amend an electoral code that clearly has not served Puerto Rico well, a country that deserves to recover the place of excellence that its electoral body occupied for years.
This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.
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Publish date : 2024-12-08 04:00:00
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