Senator-elect Ariel Ávila pointed out the potential risks of the recount requested by the National Registrar

Recently before the National Electoral Council CNE, National Registrar Alexander Vega requested that there will be a recount of the votes to the Senate in the last elections on March 13 for alleged irregularities on form E-14. “These are human factors, there is no bad faith, I presume,” Vega said, although irregularities were also evident in the software.

Regarding the fact, the opposition is concerned as they report that there are no guarantees for this process, for example the candidate of the Historical Pact indicated that he would not attend the presidential debate that RCN held on Monday holiday: “I suspend my presence in electoral debates until the transparency of the vote is guaranteed. We will act with the utmost prudence and call on international oversight to act promptly. At the moment there is no transparent chain of custody on the votes already counted”, trine Gustavo Petro.

The Historical Pact went on to have 19 seats, three more than in the first result. While the Democratic and Conservative Center, governing parties, and the Centro Esperanza Coalition, of moderate alternative movements, lost one seat each.

But Petro was not the only one to speak out, political scientist, analyst and senator-elect Ariel Ávila, commented on the possible risks that the recount in the hands of National Registrar Alexander Vega may pose, and requested that he leave office for the presidential elections of May 29.

One of the warnings that Senator Ávila noted was the custody of the votes: “The ballot bags have been alone since Saturday, kept mainly in municipal or departmental registrars run by registrars belonging to political clans, that is, one could say that there is no chain of custody”, a situation that could arise for an amendment or change of electoral cards.

Another aspect he pointed out was the irregularities of the software, which in too many cases did not present votes for traditional political movements at tables where they had voted for them, and he highlighted: “We have also found irregularities as a female official in Tolima who took the votes for the house, that is, there was no guarantee to open the bags,” said Senator Ariel Ávila.

One of the things he commented on was a possible additional complication when it came to doing the recount as the presidential elections are approaching and this could complicate the institution: “Start a recount at this general moment, in cases like mine that I took a big vote and I think many votes were stolen from me as I have shown in the tests it would be a bigger vote, it would put the institutionality in check because basically it would coincide with a very long recount that would coincide with the first round and that would jeopardize the legitimacy of the elections in the first and second presidential rounds,” said Ávila.

In conclusion, the Senator-elect from the Green Alliance requested that the National Registrar be removed from office, taking into account the upcoming elections on May 29: “We are asking that the Registrar resign, that it was proved that they had a hand in the elections and that that man, Alexander Vega, cannot be the registrar for the first and second presidential rounds”.

Since January 16, 2020, a lawsuit has been filed with the Council of State against Alexander Vega for irregularities in his appointment as National Registrar, after two years nothing has happened about this judicial process against Vega.

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