In six municipalities of Antioquia, three of them in the Aburrá Valley, there is an alert for possible cases of transhumance or vote rigging, warned the EOM (Electoral Observation Mission).
According to the report, there would be possible cases in which the magnifying glass should be put due to the importance of the upcoming elections for Congress and the presidency of the Republic.
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The most worrying cases are in Sabaneta and Briceño (north of Antioquia) that have an extreme risk because they have rates of 206 and 199 registered per thousand inhabitants, respectively.
They are followed by Mutatá and Vigía del Fuerte, with a high risk according to the EOM because they have rates of 159 and 152 registered per thousand inhabitants, respectively. Finally, they follow Envigado and La Estrella, both in the south of the Aburrá Valley, with medium risk with rates of 96 and 92 registered per thousand inhabitants.
Verónica Tabares, coordinator of the EOM in Antioquia, said that there are some reasons that would explain what is happening in the three municipalities of Aburrá that are under suspicion: “There is a citizenry that lives in one place and may be working and studying in another municipality; Likewise, there are municipalities with a high degree of urban projects that stimulate the population to move”.
In the case of Briceño, Mutatá and Vigía del Fuerte, there is a special characteristic and that is that they are municipalities that are part of the Special Transitional Districts of Peace (CTEP), which aim to increase the political representation of the areas most affected by the armed conflict.
“What could have happened is that with the identity card process carried out by the Registrar during this period, people were encouraged to register their identity card at a rural polling station or that those at the head went to rural stations or that people who had not voted before in the past, they were encouraged to be part of this process, ”said Tabares as a hypothesis in the face of the unusual increase in ballots.
(You can also read: There is still no voting date for the recall of Mayor Daniel Quintero)
Card registration table.
However, the MOE insisted that an investigation should be carried out to detect possible corruption networks in those six municipalities.
The alert is not free because it should be clarified that in Colombia this is a crime. For the political consultant, Miguel Jaramillo, in these six municipalities there are also traditional practices of possession of groups of relatives of public officials.
“They are family sectors and that happens a lot on the Caribbean coast, Urabá and Bajo Cauca in Antioquia, Norte de Santander, Meta, Caquetá, Putumayo and the south of the country where there are families that dispute power. and they have in power the mayor’s office and the governor’s office, a loot that takes turns and that loses hemegony from time to time, “explained Jaramillo.
In these areas, classified as at electoral risk, there are also some patronage practices due to the high dependence on public procurement in the economy of many of these municipalities.
“This transhumance becomes a recurring practice through which votes are transferred to certain regions in order to strengthen voting, especially to the House of Representatives”, explained the analyst.
It should be remembered that on January 13, the period for registering citizenship cards to vote in the 2022 Congress of the Republic elections ended, which had started on March 13, 2021.
According to the Registry, 2,611,750 identity cards were registered throughout the country. In person, there were 989,648 citizenship cards, of which 879,640 were made at the offices of the Registry at the national level and at points authorized by the entity throughout the country, and 110,008 at Colombian embassies and consulates. Digitally, 1,622,102 registered, that is, 62% of the registrations were made remotely.
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Make sure you know your polling place before you go to vote.
Diana Sanchez. AFP
Other causes
But there are other issues that influence possible cases of vote rigging and it is about violence and drug trafficking, driven by illegal groups.
Jorge Andrés Rico Zapata, professor of political science at the UPB, explained that as an act of corruption and as a crime defined in the Colombian Penal Code the so-called ‘vote rigging’ is a constant risk in each electoral processbecause the violence and the presence of illegal armed groups remains and increases.
“Behind this action there is an operating mechanism that directs citizens who may not be aware of the seriousness of carrying it out and/or who are forced by coercion and threat, which is a vicious circle that has structural problems. in the specific territories (electoral crime risk zones versus a situation of violence and multidimensional insecurity there),” explained Rico.
Under this scenario, he said, the areas at electoral risk are connected to some of the points of greatest violence in the country: Catatumbo, Arauca, Norte de Santander, areas of Antioquia, Chocó, Putumayo, the Pacific coast and Nariño, which are of direct interest to violent structures.
“As for the municipalities of Valle de Aburrá, it ends up being the result of the weakness and lack of control of the territory, where illegal groups are linked, maintained and in fact increase,” he added.
The teacher proposed a solution to those cases of increased registration of identification cards that could be a crime and said that the tools of the different agencies for monitoring, review, surveillance and control should be activated for possible electoral crimes.
DAVID STREET
MEDELLIN WEATHER
On Twitter: @davidcalle1
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