These are the main risks for the vote in Cali

In accordance with our Constitution, voting is a citizen’s right and duty. And this is free when its exercise is not subject to any pressure, intimidation or coercion. The State must ensure that this takes place secretly, in individual cubicles installed in each voting table, without prejudice to the use of electronic or computerized means. This is why vote buying is an electoral crime that, unfortunately, occurs throughout the country.

At Radionica we wanted to make this special and approach this phenomenon through specific testimonies and brief contexts that illustrate the magnitude of the problem. It is not long before we elect a president and it is essential that the vote we cast is informed and free.

***

Valle del Cauca has been characterized for being a territory that reports a wide electoral participation, placing itself among the departments with the highest number of votes in the country. However, in the past elections, only 44.09% of the 3,669,369 people eligible to vote in the region went to the polls.

The Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) has managed to characterize in the region, at least 30 organizations that compete to convince voters in different ways to join their political ideas. The presence of so many actors in the territory, without a doubt, makes it difficult for the information that reaches the electorate to be clear and timely, favoring electoral fraud behavior.

For this reason, it has been necessary to construction of electoral risk maps that allow identifying and categorizing the main risks for the exercise of democracy. In the case of Cali, the Awamuuy research hotbed of the Javeriana University, in alliance with the MOE, carried out a report based on 168 voting stations enabled in the city, to determine the main electoral risk factors.

This investigation revealed that in 22% of the positions analyzed there are risk factors for the electoral exercise in the city. According to the results of the study, carried out between June and December 2021 in communes 14 and 15, there is a high presence of invalid votes; while in communes 2, 17 and 22 there is a large number of unmarked ballots and a low voter turnout.

On the other hand, the predominance of voting by the same electoral party in certain points was also typified as a risk factor for giving indications of electoral constraint. Communes 22 and 2 presented high rates in this category. In addition, violence as a variable was part of the analysisrevealing that in the communes 13,14,15 and 20 they present reports of actions of this type during the electoral days.

Alexander SanchezCoordinator of the EOM Valle del Cauca, affirmed that it is important to insist that the phenomenon of vote buying continues to occur in Cali and Valle del Cauca in direct and indirect ways. Some of the direct forms identified are: giving money to people for voting and the commitments established in exchange for voting. The latter can take place with the president of the Community Action Board, with religious leaders and even with heads of public and private entities that exert pressure to address the votes in exchange for keeping their jobs.

On the other hand, one of the most worrying indirect modalities is what is known as “information points”. These are basically voter monitoring points, generally tents with computers, chairs and some refreshments, whose objective is to control the people who approach their polling stations and ensure their participation in real time in favor of a candidate. specific.

In order to guarantee a plural and democratic exercise of choice for the people of Cali, the security and control organizations carried out the Expanded Council for Electoral Guarantees, where they determined that the city, for these elections, will have the location of 4,969 tables distributed in 190 voting points. These spaces will be attended by approximately 33,000 electoral juries and the city will go from 74 to 64 scrutinizing commissions for the first presidential round.

In Cool to think out loud, We invite you to listen to the following testimony of vote buying in the city of Cali, which shows how threats to economic and emotional stability are resorted to in order to restrict the vote. Do not doubt in report to the authorities any such case.