El Salvador: Electoral Boards Members Denounce Vote Duplication

February 5, 2024 Hour: 12:27 pm

On Monday, the Central American newspaper La Prensa Grafica published an article compiling reports of irregularities in the presidential and legislative elections held in El Salvador.

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According to some citizens who took part in the Voting Reception Boards (JRV), the number of votes is doubling due to failures in the electoral information transmission system.

The JRV members witnessed a series of anomalies during the transmission of the records from the voting boards to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).

“Among the most constant complaints from JRV members are the duplication, and even triplication, of votes when they input the processed records into the TSE system. In some cases, the complainants note that the system presents this anomaly during the scrutiny of legislative elections,” La Prensa Grafica reported.

In El Salvador, incumbent President Nayib Bukele, up for reelection, has overseen a crackdown on gangs.

Yet, the government has been accused of human rights abuses and dismantling democratic institutions.

Watch part of @IAmAmnaNawaz‘s interview with Vice President @fulloa51. pic.twitter.com/QMdHSlO9HI

— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour)
February 2, 2024

Besides supporting their complaints with photos, videos, and audios, citizens indicated that the system experienced delays in data entry due to possible network saturation or outage. These problems were reported until the early hours of Monday.

“It’s 2:32 a.m., and we’re still at the voting centers unable to perform the scrutiny. The system is not working. All the records are being processed manually. There’s no way to tally the preferences in the legislator’s records,” citizen Miguel Vasquez posted on his X account.

During Monday’s early morning hours, Salvadoran electoral authorities acknowledged that the system failed during the preliminary vote count. Therefore, they instructed the JRVs to process the records manually and take photos of the records as evidence.

“The numbers they have presented make no sense. They have too many inconsistencies. It’s a serious error,” a TSE source commented to La Prensa Grafica.

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a non-governmental organization, called on the Salvadoran TSE to “guarantee transparency and reliability” in the results of the elections.

Until noon on Monday, the Salvadoran TSE had processed 70 percent of the electoral records. President Nayib Bukele has garnered 1,662,313 votes.

#FromTheSouth News Bits | The Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES) denounced that there were 64 violations of the press before the electoral period, between December 2023 and February 3. pic.twitter.com/g1FVt64QTA

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish)
February 5, 2024