Miguel Polo Polo lost the Afro seat in the recount and denounces “the greatest fraud in history”

This Friday, March 18, the candidate for the Colombian Congress, Miguel Polo Polo, denounced that in the port municipality of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca, 1,500 votes appeared, after the ballot, that would benefit the candidate Lina Martínez García, with whom she was competing for the second seat for the Afro-Colombian special constituency.

The former member of the Democratic Center, who has become known on social media for his controversial right-wing positions, announced that he will demand a recount of votes in the port city, assuring that “there are more votes than voters”, because with the current vote he would lose the seat, which he had virtually won, with the daughter of the condemned man for parapolitics and electoral fraud, Juan Carlos Martínez Sinisterra.

“In Buenaventura yesterday the ballot ended and everything was normal, and today when the result of it is raised to the system, 1500 votes appear to the daughter of the negro Martínez. There are more votes in the city than there are voters. We are going to demand a table by table recount,” said the candidate who had held his vote with the governing party congresswoman, María Fernanda Cabal, despite the fact that the ballot had not been completed.

Miguel Polo Polo, who stood by the Community Council of Black Communities Fernando Ríos Hidalgo, won, with 99.41% of the polls counted, 35,253 votes, and the candidate for the Community Council of the Black Communities Limones, Martínez García, won 34,308 votes, making the difference only 950 votes, which is why the seat would be defined in the recount.

This controversy over the seat allocated to Afro-descendant communities is in addition to those of dozens of politicians and parties who have denounced “electoral fraud” in the legislative elections held on March 13, inconsistencies that have been supported by the Electoral Observation Mission (EOM).

“The biggest fraud in Colombia's history and President Iván Duque does nothing. It seems that by default they want democracy in our country to come to an end. We are not going to let ourselves steal the elections! GOD gave us the place and only He can take it away from us. Thousands of people who voted for me say that their votes do not appear at the tables,” said the candidate for Congress, Polo Polo.

At the same time, he pointed out that there have been more than 80,000 invalid votes in the House because of negritudes, which represents the total 13% of the vote for this special constituency that has been so controversial “fraud is great,” the activist declared.

For her part, the senator of the Democratic Center, Paloma Valencia, denounced on Thursday afternoon that “they are doing all kinds of fraud to take away Miguel Polo Polo's seat”, indicating that “strange movements” were being reported to her on the Pacific coast of Cauca, finally, concluding that “what is happening with the elections is unacceptable. A serious and networked vote recount is required for all.”

KEEP READING