TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS.- The National Electoral Council (CNE) began opening the coffers of the first wards to arrive of the three warring factions until last night with a commitment to offer results starting March 16.
The Secretary General of the collegiate entity, Alejandro Martinez, reported that until last night they left the warehouses of the National Institute of Vocational Training (Info) one hundred percent of the material from Francisco Morazán, Islas de la Bahía, two municipalities from El Paraíso and two from Comayagua.
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At night they waited for the arrival of the rest of the cities of Comayagua and the vans with the other documents from El Paraíso, Lempira, Intibucá, La Paz, Colón, Copán, Ocotepeque, Santa Bárbara, Choluteca and Valle were already on their way. way..
“We’re going to start undoing (opening) the suitcases and removing the election documents at night at 9:00 am. Once we have different data, we’ll go ahead with scanning and then fingering,” said Martínez.
“Tomorrow (today) will be a tougher day as we already have a large number of records that we are going to digitize,” said the official, who was always ready to speak to the press.
Scanning will take place simultaneously
The original closing minutes with the results of each of the 23,880 tables corresponding to the three parties (National, Liberal and Free) will be scanned and digitized simultaneously so that each political institution has information on the three electives.
The process of arriving at an electoral case takes time, as it first falls into the hands of the municipal committees that receive them from the villages and hamlets.
They are then delivered to the departmental election commissions and passed on to the armed forces (FFAA) who, in consultation with the transport custodian, take them to the warehouses of the capital.
Once in the capital, they have to take turns unloading and then the trunk is opened, looking for the original final act, which remains in the possession of the CNE, and the copies to come for each move.
In the case of the National Party, there are two copies for its currents, three for the Liberal Party and ten for the Free Party.
“When we start scanning the minutes, we go with the three levels and with the three political parties to be fair in the information that will be disclosed,” said the secretary general of the collegiate entity.
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The results
If the scanning and digitization of the records started at midnight, the first results would be available to the public in the early hours of the morning today.
If the digitization started later, “we think there will be a trend tomorrow (today) in the afternoon and the day after tomorrow for the three political parties and that we will have the candidates that come forward as winners,” said the official.
Martínez estimated that between Thursday and Friday of this week, the CNE had already scanned and digitized 100 percent of the 23,880 minutes at a rate of 7,960 for each match in question.
Access to information
The political parties and their currents have each installed a computer room, in the case of the national and liberal parties, in Hotel Plaza Juan Carlos and Libre in the Honduras Maya.
Each party can see the progress of their minutes on giant screens installed in these hotel centers.
The CNE will also disseminate the results through its website and through the bulletins announced by the chairman on Sunday evening. Ana Paola Hall
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Payment arrears per warehouse
One reason the election governing body was slow to start opening the suitcases was because until yesterday they gave him an elaborate warehouse that he had built.
It happens that the same suitcases will be used in the general elections and since 14 parties will participate, it was necessary to buy suitcases that were 50 percent larger than the current ones.
This change meant that they did not fit into the previous room and so a new one was built, explained the CNE Secretary General.
For political analyst Julio Navarro, there is one aspect that must be recognized in this electoral process: the influx of voters.
Despite the pandemic, people have responded and can be said to have saved the process after its development was long questioned.
Another analyst, Josué Murillo, pointed out the massive presence of young people making it to the polls, not so much because of political banners, but because of their beliefs.
The short term challenges
Politicians should resume discussion of the new electoral law as soon as possible with clear rules to avoid problems in the general election.
According to experts, the situation will become complicated if the elections are held in November without an effective transmission system and if the parties’ interference in the National Electoral Council (CNE) continues.
There must be a legal body that regulates the integration of the reception election tables, which for now is the issue that has prevented progress with the law of which more than 200 articles have already been passed.
“Today it is a categorical necessity to have clear rules for holding general elections and that they are not on the run at the last minute to do it at a horse slaughter, improvising,” said the National Convergence Forum coordinator. Fonac). , Omar Rivera.
Augusto Aguilar, who helped prepare the new electoral law, said that “it is urgent that we proceed immediately with its adoption and with the law of the Electoral Court of Justice.”
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The National Electoral Council (CNE), meanwhile, must “improve the planning of the process and what we can expect before the general election is that three basic problems have been solved,” said the director of the Netherlands Institute for Democracy, Luis. León.
He specified, “We cannot go to a general process without data transmission and vote counting because it would be catastrophic; From now on you have to make a plan for the logistics distribution ”because there were many failures such as late arrival of the material from the table representatives.