A specialist in the field of suffrage questioned the role of the TSE in curbing illegal propaganda, abuse of power and interference by parties in the counting of votes.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) closed the final review process on Thursday processing 100% of the minutes of the three elections: Legislative Assembly, Parlacen and City Councils.
El Diario de Hoy spoke with attorney Ruth Eleonora López, an expert in suffrage, to find out
your assessment of that process.
Has the electoral calendar been fulfilled?
The legal deadlines were respected, but not the administrative deadlines, which sometimes depend on external actors. But when the time came, everything was ready.
How do you assess the work of the TSE in the just concluded elections?
The TSE continues to demonstrate its engineering factory’s ability to organize and conduct an election process. As for the control function and the guarantees of fairness of the match, they showed a lot to thank. There was progress with regard to the intervention in appeals submitted on the internal democracy processes of the parties, in particular to ensure the participation of candidates.
However, there was a lack of control over illegal propaganda because it was overdue, carried out by actors excluded by law, the propaganda of officials using the position, or the government’s propaganda during the prohibition period. Nor was the quorum for decisions regulated in the Elections Act for the Settlement of Appeals.
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What do you think were the challenges facing the TSE in these elections?
Run a trial in a pandemic, low credibility, little electoral cohesion, and little exercise of control powers.
How did you feel about the use of technology in these elections?
The use of technology was optimal in more than 96% of the tables according to the transfer of results. 100% is never reached. The TSE must evaluate the places where the training failed and improve them for the following processes. However, the electoral expert believes the government has “abused” by propagating during the electoral silence. “The TSE has done its homework and passed the election exam with flying colors.”
Has it been proven that there is no fraud?
Voter fraud has two perspectives, an individual connotation that is regulated in the Criminal Code and the election administration as the possibility to change a result based on the behavior of an actor in the process (the election administration itself or the contenders-parties or candidatures).
From the criminal sphere, the Attorney General announced that some trials were being followed while committing this crime. From an electoral point of view, the TSE showed that it was not possible to influence the election administration if the results changed. I can confirm, however, that there were systematic acts of contenders to irregularly influence the will of the electorate, through negative propaganda or funding candidacies through public media.
How did you view the participation of political parties in the electoral process?
There were parties that repeatedly disobeyed the rules of the competition and candidacies. Mario Durán started campaigning outside and on social networks a month before the allowed period, not to mention, the same happened with Ernesto Muyshondt (Mayor of San Salvador) and d’Aubuisson (Mayor of Santa Tecla).
What is your opinion of the Executive’s participation in the process?
The executive took an insulting action, violated each of the election bans on the election campaign. He acted like an actor in the competition, a reflection of a caudillista and authoritarian model, disregarding the rules of the trial.
What do you mean by becoming an actor in the process and why is this negative?
Article 172 of the Elections Act recognizes parties and candidates the right to election propaganda. Even if the strategy of the N y Gana campaign focused on the president, neither the executive nor the president were candidates or parties.
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What do you think of the TSE’s performance in the final vote?
The action of the TSE was unconstitutional, firstly because the House clearly established in judgment 139-2013 that electoral bodies cannot be formed by representatives of political parties, secondly because Article 209 Cn states that no party or coalition can have the upper hand over parties and in that decision the TSE not only integrated the polling stations with party representatives, giving them the power to carry out the final check, but also did not respect the integration of the existing coalitions.
What do you think are the challenges for the next elections?
The scarce electoral and democratic training of the population, and that is a responsibility of the electoral authority, which must implement strategies for this together with the MINED, and also regularly create space for exchange with the population.
As long as the citizens do not identify violations of electoral rules, they will not be able to demand them, as long as they do not know the implications of their vote, they will not knowingly grant them, as long as they do not know. why we should avoid illegal funding, they will not understand that their right to choose freely is being violated.
Any news on this trial?
Leaving technology, trademark stories and minutes on chemical paper. As well as biosecurity measures.
How do you rate the election process compared to the previous one?
This was a much more successful process than the comparable in 2015 and 2018, there is no denying progress with the TSE’s own resources and programs. While some bet on not delegitimizing the referee, the TSE staff did their homework and passed the exam with flying colors. And I’m not saying perfect because it wasn’t. These points for improvement should be used for the following processes, in particular 2024, in which it is a complex process because of the voting modalities included and because it concerns a general election.
What do you think are the challenges for the next elections?
The scarce electoral and democratic education of the population is a responsibility of the electoral authority
that it must implement strategies with the MINED to achieve this, and also regularly create spaces for exchange with the population.
As long as the citizens do not identify violations of election regulations, they cannot ask for them, as long as they do not know the implications of their vote, they will not knowingly grant them, as long as they do not know. why we should avoid illegal funding, they will not understand that their right to choose freely is being violated.