Registrar will change voting juries of more than 5,000 polls with irregularities

On May 29, the first round of the presidential elections will be held throughout the country. In order to ensure the legality of this voting day and to prevent fraud, the Registrar has announced that it will elect new juries, especially at the tables where irregularities occurred on 13 March.

It should be recalled that the role of voting juries is entrusted to citizens randomly selected by the Registrar's Office; however, some changes will be made in the forthcoming elections to avoid the problems that arose in the legislative elections. In total, as confirmed by Registrar Alexander Vega, errors and inconsistencies were found in 5,109 voting stations, which is why there will be changes in juries.

“We are going to do a new draw and we will ensure that no table is homogeneous in the country. We are going to vary the application sectors, prioritizing electoral campaigns and political parties, which will have all the guarantees for the formation of voting juries,” explained the official who has faced criticism and complaints about the irregularities of March 13.

For these elections, according to the entity, 700,000 voting juries will be appointed through the lottery draw and ensuring that the tables have people with different political affiliations, that is to say that they are heterogeneous, and the juries nominated by political campaigns will be prioritized.

“We are going to change the allocation of all political sectors and include official, private and teaching employees, but we are going to guarantee experience as a criterion. There will be a month for the campaigns to nominate their juries and witnesses and the form of assignment will be changed again; the experience of those who have served as jurors will be taken into account,” the official added.

The selected citizens must appear at the polling stations on 29 May and, if there is a second round, on 19 June. The transparency of the elections and the speed of reporting the results depend largely on them, since they are the citizens who, representing civil society, attend to the voters on election day.

The consultation can be done through the link infovotescongreso.registraduria.gov.co/ or by installing the InfoVoteras Congreso application on mobile phones; all you have to do is enter your identification number and it will provide you with the details of whether you are a jury member and your position in voting. This software is nourished by the lists of citizens sent by private and public companies, educational establishments and political parties and movements.

Voting juries must appear no later than 7:30 a.m. at the assigned table. Election Day ends at 4:00 p.m., when the table counting begins. Juries can only be withdrawn at the end of the counting of the votes and submit the forms duly completed and signed to the Post Delegate of the National Registry Office.

Please note that, as a general rule, every citizen between the ages of 18 and 60 may be appointed as a voting jury. In addition, all Colombians who are employees of public, private entities, students, or members of political movements or parties themselves can be selected.

Likewise, if you are selected as a voting jury, there are penalties for not doing your job and not presenting a valid excuse. If you are a public official, you may be removed from office; if you are not, you may be fined up to 10 statutory minimum wages in force (i.e., $10,000,000).

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