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News > Latin America

Paraguay: Ganar Coalition Launch Legal Challenge Alleging Fraud in Elections

  • Ganar Coalition's presidential candidate Efrain Alegre (l) and vice presidential candidate Leo Rubin (r).

    Ganar Coalition's presidential candidate Efrain Alegre (l) and vice presidential candidate Leo Rubin (r). | Photo: Reuters

Published 26 April 2018
Opinion

They have cited inconsistencies between the results presented by the Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission and original tally sheets. 

The Ganar Coalition has launched 50 legal challenges citing a series of discrepancy following the results of Paraguay's elections. The coalition, which is composed of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party and the Guasu Front, filed the challenges Wednesday alleging that there were inconsistencies between the votes counted and the tally sheets submitted to the Superior Court for Electoral Justice (TSJE).     

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According to Roque Troche, the legal representative of the Ganar Coalition, after the evaluation of only 25 percent of the votes in Asuncion, Paraguay’s capital they have identified 50 irregularities. “We have found errors in the tally sheets that must be attacked by challenging them," he said.

The main anomaly he charged is that the Preliminary Electoral Results Transmission (TREP), operated by the Electoral Justice has presented a lower number of votes for Ganar coalition candidates and these figures are smaller than the data registered in the original count.

In some cases, TREP sent documents in which the Ganar coalition has zero votes when the original tally sheets show otherwise.  

Presidential candidate for the Ganar coalition Efrain Alegre stated in a press conference Wednesday that Paraguay’s Superior Court for Electoral Justice (TSJE) did not provide all the necessary guarantees and announced they will wait for a “vote by vote” evaluation, before recognizing the results.

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“We have a difficult political process, we have confronted the mafia, corruption, fraudulent polls,” Alegre told reporters. He also criticized the TSJE for being biased and keeping information. Specifically, denying access to information to verify possible duplication of votes that Ganar supporters believe befitted the Colorado Party’s candidate Mario Abdo Benitez.

Ganar Coalition vice presidential candidate Leo Rubin, of the Guasu Front, confirmed the group had sent a letter to the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union detailing all the irregularities detected in Sunday’s national elections. Among the irregularities, the coalition cites 535 tally sheets with no vote for the Guasu Front senate list, something they consider “inconceivable.”

The party Patria Querida, or Beloved Homeland, issued a public statement Wednesday saying their elected representatives to Congress will work to reform the electoral system, including electronic ballot boxes.

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