More than 280 complaints were received in Bogotá for irregularities in the elections

As part of Colombia's election day on March 13, the Personería de Bogotá received a total of 284 citizen complaints about the alleged violation of the right to vote.

The entity stated that the capital had problems because the document registered in the voting station did not appear or there were errors on the part of the juries such as the delivery of some unsigned cards or the erroneous return of the ballot papers.

Julián Pinilla Malagón, the representative of Bogotá, indicated that there were “74 reports of irregularities observed by the guardians of democracy.” Among these are the accompaniment of third parties to the voting cubicle, the use of cell phones in spaces ready to vote and the delivery of political propaganda in the polling places.

In the report submitted by the Personería, the entity highlighted that during the elections there were public servants who monitored and exercised control in the towns of Santa Fe, San Cristóbal, Bosa, Usme, Teusaquillo, Sumapaz, Barrios Unidos and Corferias, the largest voting point in Bogotá.

“In total we watched 4,145 tables in Bogotá. During the day, around 400 officials participated in each of the different roles as guardians of democracy,” Pinilla said. He also explained that an inter-institutional help desk was set up at the headquarters of the Personería, which “allowed, with the presence of the Registry Office and the Police, to resolve some complaints from citizens in real time. We will continue to be very attentive to our work in counting and counting,” he added.

The guardians of democracy mentioned by the Public Ministry identified that the greatest number of irregularities occurred in Bosa, San Cristobal and Usme. “Citizens approached the Personería de Bogotá to present their complaints, with the towns of Bosa, San Cristobal and Teusaquillo being the most recurrent,” Pinilla said.

The head of the Public Ministry highlighted that they received complaints from citizens about the lack of cards with braille language in the interparty consultations of the Historical Pact, Team for Colombia and Centro Esperanza. “This situation creates a barrier to access for those with visual impairments to exercise their right to vote autonomously and secretly,” said the public official.

On the other hand, the entity received four complaints in which the voting juries handed the wrong ballot paper to a person. The Personería recalled that in these cases it is important for the citizen to go to a headquarters of the local auxiliary registry office to leave the identity document that was wrongly given to him.

The Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) also issued a report on the irregularities that occurred in the country's capital. In the document they emphasize a very serious complaint, since apparently some citizens voted with passwords and even photocopies of the ballots in the town of La Candelaria. The situation in itself is illegal considering that you can only attend the polls with the original identification document.

The EOM mentioned that it received 206 allegations of possible irregularities in 37 polling stations in 11 locations in Bogotá, including 32 complaints related to the buying of votes in Bosa, Usme, Tunjuelito.

In turn, they stated that in some polling stations the presence of people who distributed electoral advertising outside the polling stations was reported.

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