Paraguay opposition parties cite alleged security flaws and transparency concerns ahead of June 7 internal elections.

Paraguayan opposition groups on Thursday called for an independent technical audit of electronic voting machines to be used in upcoming internal elections, citing alleged vulnerabilities in the system and questioning the transparency of the electoral process.

RELATED: Paraguay Begins Verification of Voting Machines for Internal Elections

The demand follows the identification of 23 alleged critical operational flaws in the voting technology scheduled for use during the simultaneous party primaries on June 7, which will determine candidates for mayoral and municipal council positions.

Senator Éver Villalba of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico, PLRA, in Spanish) accused authorities of altering contract conditions to favor Comitia-MSA, a private company he said was previously a commercial partner of Paraguayan President Santiago Peña.

Text Reads: Attention! If you wish to have the privilege of appearing on the Electoral Justice website, it seems it suffices to say that the ministers are angels and that their toy—the voting machine—is a divine miracle.Transparency is not built upon propaganda or flattery, but rather upon real oversight and public trust.

Villalba stated that the Superior Tribunal of Electoral Justice (Tribunal Superior de Justicia Electora, TSJE, in Spanish) awarded the consortium a US$35 million contract for the leasing of voting equipment.

Diego Garcete, technical representative of a liberal party faction, said the electoral authority failed to execute a legally approved US$1.5 million budget intended to fund an independent computer audit of the voting system.

According to Garcete, the machines contain exposed electronic ports that could allow data manipulation, while the supplier restricts access to the source code.

Computer engineer Derlis Gregor said the system presents 23 operational vulnerabilities and argued that the official review previously conducted lacked scientific rigor.

Gregor also stated that the TSJE prevented auditors from examining the vote encryption algorithms. Engineer Gladys Canese said the platform operates through closed-source software managed exclusively by state authorities.

Text Reads: The electoral cases are being loaded onto large trucks; subsequently, they will be transported to Electoral Registries and Civic Centers, and distributed to polling stations.

Opposition alliance representatives further questioned the qualifications of personnel overseeing the TSJE’s Information Technology Directorate, arguing that the lack of university-accredited credentials among key staff undermines guarantees of transparency in Paraguay’s electoral system.

The allegations come days before Paraguay’s June 7 internal elections, a key stage in the selection of party candidates for local government offices across the country.

IN THIS ARTICLE