Lawyers agree that the president is using government propaganda
The electoral code forbids officials from inaugurating work a month before the election so as not to influence the voter’s intention at the last minute, but President Nayib Bukele tried to overcome the ban by traveling last week to La Libertad bypass and announcing the delivery of computers to schools. on Sunday evening, the lawyers consulted by El Diario de Hoy coincide.
“There are vices of mice that it is not an inauguration because there is no ribbon cutting: it is a crime of intelligence services,” said former magistrate Rodolfo Gonzalez about the route and subsequent authorization of the new highway in La Libertad that the president made- a week goes by.
Although González said he could not be specific about election law, he recalled that when he was a magistrate in the Constitutional Chamber, they declared unconstitutional a decree by former President Mauricio Funes that allowed officials to conduct a campaign for that time. FMLN presidential candidate Salvador Sánchez Cerén to the winner of the 2014 elections.
The government has started delivering computers to high school students in grades II and III. Photo: Jonathan Funes
For González, Bukele’s intention with the delivery of these works being so close to the elections is the prevalence of his position of proselytism.
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“The president cannot remove the image that he belongs to a political party. You can qualify for these behaviors to fall under Article 218 of the Constitution, to take advantage of the position of engaging in a partisan policy, “he said.
In the same vein, believes constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya.
“Certainly the opening of a street and the announcement of the delivery of computers are tools of government propaganda, in my opinion. This is a sincere violation of Article 178 of the Electoral Code, “the lawyer said.
The aforementioned article states that “During the thirty days prior to the date set for the elections, neither the Government of the Republic, nor the Municipal Councils and other autonomous entities may publish in any private or state media the employment, inauguration of national infrastructure works or any another nature which they have carried out, are carrying out or intend to carry out in accordance with the provision or services of assistance to which the State is obliged ‘.
In the opinion of Eduardo Escobar, an electoral expert lawyer, this article talks about two conditions, the inauguration of the works and their publication and, in this sense, considers that both conditions are violated with the authorization of circumvention.
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“There is the publication in which there is no state payment, I call the media, they arrive and publish the inauguration. Finally, the same effect is generated, a state work is issued in a prohibited election period so as not to generate an unwarranted influence on voters. In circumvention, the crime is configured from our point of view “, said the director of the Citizen Action.