Colombians Denounce Electoral Crimes At Polling Stations Abroad

Over the week, Colombian politicians denounced electoral crimes at polling stations in Canada and the United States, where Colombian citizens residing abroad are casting their vote to choose their new lawmakers.

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On Monday, presidential pre-candidate Juan Galan rejected that the electoral authorities of the voting centers of Miami are awarding ballots of the right-wing collation "Team for Colombia" without the voter's request to prevent the leftist "Historic Pact" from winning votes.

"This practice induces the citizen vote for what is an abusive political intervention," Galan stressed and asked the National Civil Registry President Alexander Vega to intervene immediately at the polling stations in Miami.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) Magistrate Luis Perez denounced the impersonation of a Colombian voter at a polling station in the Colombian consulate in Montreal city, Canada.

"Upon arriving at the polling place, the citizen could not vote because he appeared as if he had already done so," Perez explained and demanded the opening of a disciplinary and criminal investigation into the jurors who allowed such an infraction.  

"Most of the irregularities were recorded at the Antioquia, Atlantico, Cordoba, and Bolivar departments," the EOM said, adding that it handed over this evidence to the electoral authorities for the respective investigations to be carried out.

On Thursday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet asked President Ivan Duque to guarantee the citizens' right to participate in "an environment free of threats and violence." Her latest report on this South American country shows that progressive social leaders are permanently threatened or killed.

So far, widespread insecurity has made 17 candidates from the Peace Circumscriptions abandon their aspirations for a seat.