2024-01-03 19:56:45
The plenary session of magistrates of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) continues to disintegrate, since this Wednesday, January 3, when the institution returned to its functions after the end of the year break, the four magistrates who lost their immunity and left the country requested a vacation period.
This was confirmed by Judge Blanca Alfaro, president of the TSE, who indicated that after completing the licenses requested by the judges, in mid-December, the institution went into year-end recess and resumed its functions this Wednesday.
“They are still out of the country and we have verified in Human Resources that they have requested their vacations (…) they would have to return in February,” explained the president of the TSE.
The vacation period that judges Irma Palencia, Rafael Rojas, Mynor Franco and Gabriel Aguilera now enjoy began this January 3, and is equivalent to 20 business days, according to the electoral authorities.
“Neither my colleagues nor I have enjoyed any vacation period, because we come from 2020 when there was a pandemic, we were working, but locked in the building; Then, in 2022 comes the preparation for 2023, we have not enjoyed any vacation period, they are in their first vacation period,” Alfaro added.
Without integrating Plenary
Currently the electoral body is operating in its other areas, Alfaro said. “We are working normally, the manager is doing her job from a financial point of view, the Secretariat is working, Legal is working and so on the different directions,” he explained.
However, Alfaro recalled that they cannot hear electoral issues that warrant the integration of the plenary session, because there is only one titular magistrate, who in this case is the presiding magistrate, Blanca Alfaro.
She is accompanied by substitutes Marco Antonio Cornejo, Marlon Barahona and Álvaro Cordón, with whom it is impossible to reach the quorum of the plenary session which, according to the Electoral and Political Parties Law (Lepp), must be five judges.
“I know that my colleagues, like me, have not had pleasant moments, if you like, we are human beings, we have feelings, and we also have a family, there are aspects of our lives that affect us,” Alfaro added.
She, along with the rest of her fellow judges, faced a pre-trial process at the end of last year due to a citizen complaint processed by the Administrative Crimes Prosecutor’s Office of the Public Ministry (MP).
The complaint filed by Geovanny Fratti and Karen Fisher accuses them of apparent criminal acts in the purchase of the computer system used in the first and second round voting.
The Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission system (TREP), which had a cost of Q148 million, would have been overvalued, according to an independent audit carried out by the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGC).
“They are responsible people, they are human beings who have given the TSE their time, their love, their work, and I know that at the appropriate time, I trust that they will present themselves,” Alfaro said when referring to the work of his colleagues.
The TSE is also waiting to make decisions regarding some memorials sent by the MP, since in the opinion of the investigating entity, the voting minutes are not valid.
Consequently, to deepen the analysis, the president of the TSE requested reports from all TSE offices that were related to the electoral process, and all that information must be fully analyzed.
“When there is a plenary session, I am sure that when we call them we will meet,” said Alfaro, when asked if that possible meeting would be extended until February, when the vacation period for the rest of the TSE’s titular magistrates ends.
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