An election law specialist has questioned the role of the TSE in combating illegal propaganda, abuse of power and party interference in counting votes.
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) concluded on Thursday the final control process with the processing of 100% of the minutes of the three elections: the Legislative Assembly, Parlacen and the municipal councils.
El Diario de Hoy spoke with lawyer Ruth Eleonora López, an expert in electoral law, to find out
your assessment of this process.
Has the election calendar been fulfilled?
The legal deadlines were met, but not the administrative ones, which sometimes depend on external actors. However, when the time came, everything was ready.
How do you assess the activity of the EST in the elections that have just ended?
EST continues to demonstrate the ability of its technical factory to organize and execute an electoral process. As for the control function and the guarantees of fairness of the competition, they left much to be desired. Progress has been made in intervening in appeals against the internal democracy processes of the parties, in particular to ensure the participation of candidates.
However, there was a lack of control over illegal propaganda due to the fact that it was untimely, carried out by outlawed actors, those made by officials who take advantage of the position or government propaganda during the ban period. The quorum for decisions regulated in the Electoral Code for resolving appeals was not respected either.
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What do you think were the challenges facing EST for these elections?
Execute a process in a pandemic, with low credibility, with a small cohesion of the electorate and with a reduced exercise of control powers.
What do you think about the use of technology in these choices?
The use of technology was optimal in over 96% of the tables, depending on the transmission of results. 100% is never reached. The TSE needs to assess where training failures have taken place and improve them for subsequent processes. However, the electoral law expert considers that the Government “acted abusively” by making propaganda during the electoral silence. “The TSE has done its homework and passed the electoral exam with flying colors.”
It turned out that there was no fraud?
Electoral fraud has two perspectives, an individual connotation regulated in the Criminal Code and an administrative election as the possibility to change a result based on the conduct of an actor in the process (the electoral administration itself or competitors – parties or candidates).
From the criminal sphere, the general prosecutor announced that following the commission of this crime, some trials were followed. From an electoral point of view, the TSE demonstrated how it was not possible to influence the electoral administration on a change in the results. However, I can say that there have been systematic acts by competitors that have irregularly influenced the will of the electorate, through negative propaganda or the financing of candidacies with the use of public media.
How did you see the participation of political parties in the electoral process?
There were parties that repeatedly disobeyed the rules of the contest and the nominations. Mario Durán started the campaign outdoors a month before the allowed period and on social networks, not to mention, the same happened with Ernesto Muyshondt (mayor of San Salvador) and d’Aubuisson (mayor of Santa Tecla) .
What do you think about the executive’s participation in the trial?
The executive had an abusive action, violating each of the electoral bans in the election campaign. He behaved like an actor in a contest, a reflection of a caudillist and authoritarian model, not respecting the rules of the process.
What do you mean by becoming an actor in this process and why is this negative?
Article 172 of the Electoral Code recognizes the right of parties and candidates to electoral propaganda. Even when the strategy of the N y Ghana campaign focused on the president, neither the Executive nor the President were candidates or parties.
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What do you think about the performance of EST in the final vote?
The TSE action was unconstitutional, firstly because the Chamber of Judgment 139-2013 was clear in establishing that electoral bodies cannot be made up of representatives of political parties, secondly because Article 209 Cn provides that no party or coalition can not predominate parties and in that decision TSE not only integrated the polling stations with party representatives, giving them the power to carry out the final control, but also did not respect the integration of existing coalitions.
What do you think are the challenges for the next election?
Reduced electoral and democratic formation of the population and this is a responsibility of the electoral authority which must implement strategies with MINED to achieve this, as well as create regular spaces for exchange with the population.
As long as citizens do not identify violations of electoral regulations, will not be able to ask for them, as long as they do not know the implications of their vote, will not give it consciously, as long as they do not know why we must prevent illegal funding, they do not they will understand that their right to choose in a free way is violated.
Any news on this process?
Technology, leaving behind stories about trademarks and minutes on chemical paper. So are biosecurity measures.
How do you evaluate the electoral process compared to the previous ones?
This was a much more successful process than the similar one in 2015 and 2018, the progress with EST’s own resources and programs is indisputable. While some bet on the failure to delegitimize the referee, the TSE staff did their homework and passed the exam with flying colors. And I’m not saying perfect, because it wasn’t. These points for improvement should be used for the next processes, especially in 2024, where it is a complex process due to the voting methods included and because it involves general elections.
What do you think are the challenges for the next election?
Reduced electoral and democratic formation of the population and this is a responsibility of the electoral authority
that it needs to implement strategies with MINED to achieve this, as well as create regular spaces for exchange with the population.
As long as citizens do not identify violations of electoral regulations, will not be able to ask for them, as long as they do not know the implications of their vote, will not give it consciously, as long as they do not know why we must prevent illegal funding, they do not they will understand that their right to choose in a free way is violated.