2023-06-23 13:00:12
During the almost 90 days in which it is allowed to carry out an electoral campaign, there have been various complaints from different parties throughout the territory for the use of State assets or resources for electoral purposes.
The complaints began even before the campaign began, with the documentation of vehicles with official license plates present in the assemblies where candidates were proclaimed, as was the case of the National Hope Unit (UNE) and the pro-government party Vamos por una Guatemala Diferente.
In addition, both the Electoral Observation Mission of Guatemala (MOE-Gt) and Mirador Electoral have denounced cases of possible use of State resources in political campaigns.
The cases compiled by both observatories indicate the delivery of the Program for the Elderly, of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, in addition to purchases made by the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food.
Without leaving aside findings in the execution of the social programs of the different municipalities, which have shown a tendency to increase budget and deliveries just in the months of the electoral campaign in relation to previous years.
Actions
On June 25, the corresponding institutions must ensure and verify that State resources are not used under any circumstances. The Electoral and Political Parties Law (Lepp) prohibits in its article 223 the use of State resources and assets.
According to the statements of the magistrate of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Ranulfo Rojas, the entity will coordinate efforts with the Public Ministry (MP).
“What has been determined with the MP is precisely the coordination that the prosecutor has turned to the prosecutor coordinators and prosecutors throughout the Republic in terms of being able to act when the cases require it,” argued the magistrate.
The Electoral Crimes Prosecutor’s Office, headed by Lisbeth Pérez de Paz, added that its actions will be coordinated with institutions such as the National Civil Police (PNC), the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (PDH) and other instances.
“We coordinate to act in any incident that occurs in any voting center, in addition the MP has support groups for tax incidents, they are the ones who see those situations in which the personnel have to move to an area and process a scene” he assured.
In addition, within the announced operational plan there will be at least three thousand workers on duty for any electoral incident that occurs, according to the Attorney General, Consuelo Porras.
On the other hand, the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGC) presented an application in which complaints can be filed regarding the use of vehicles, food delivery, use of official transport, rental of transport with public funds, use of fuel, among other aspects. Complaints may be submitted by the institution’s auditors deployed in the voting centers.
The reports made will be examined later to determine or not the respective sanctions or complaints. In addition, reports from citizens and observers will be received in the citizen complaint application or at the 1506 call center.
Both the MP and the CGC detailed that they will have systems that will allow the location of their personnel to be known in real time by way of monitoring.
Observers
The MOE-Gt and the Association for Research and Social Studies (Asíes) detailed that they will deploy observers in around 1,200 Voting Receiving Boards (JRV) to verify the process and results.
This from a random and representative sample. Of the 340 municipalities, the Mission will be present in 282 and voting abroad is considered as an additional district.
The Mission clarified that coordinators were also designated for each department who will be in charge of supervising between 17 and 58 observers. In Guatemala, seven were assigned, in Quetzaltenango, San Marcos, Huehuetenango, Alta Verapaz and Quiché two were assigned, while in the other departments only one.
“If there are specific incidents of violence inside the observed voting centers, we will report them,” said Natalia Gámez, spokesperson for the MOE-Gt.
In addition, he indicated that reports will be sent with what was collected regarding the use of State resources, performance of the TSE, among others.
The Mission also maintains direct communication with the Expanded Conflict Board and if acts of violence or conflicts that require an immediate response from the institutions are detected, the information will be forwarded for the necessary attention.
#institutions #inspect #public #resources #June