The discussion of the reform to the Electoral Code advances in Congress, where there is controversy, among several, about implementing or not electronic voting.
In this regard, the former Delegate Registrar for Electoral Affairs, Alfonso Portela, indicated that it is key to automate the process, where electronic voting is only a part.
THE NEW CENTURY: What stands out about the reform to the Electoral Code that Congress is processing?
ALFONSO PORTELA: ‘Amen’ to the structural or bureaucratic part of the Code, I am referring directly to some electoral rules that benefit the process, such as automation, extension of voting hours, the possibility that the Registrar’s Office can create posts or open polling stations in places other than the rigidity of the Code that currently governs us, the issue of gender parity. These are, among others, important aspects in the Electoral Code that are good for our system.
ENS: Why has it taken so long to reform the Electoral Code and we still have the one from 1986, which was issued via decree?
AP: Although it is true that the vast majority of the Code weighs in the Code of 86, we must not ignore that the Constitution of 91 forced some reforms that today are the ones that govern a large part of our process, because we cannot ignore Law 128 of 94, 130, 131, 134, 136, 163 of 94, which were also very important reforms in electoral matters.
Then come the legislative acts 01 of 2003, 02 of 2009, Law 1475 of 2011, in short, practically the number of regulations that greatly transformed the electoral system and adapted it to the Constitution of 1991.
Yes, there are certain aspects, especially procedural, that are governed by the Decree of 1986, but the vast majority of the important regulations on electoral matters today are from 1994, from 2011. “What happens is that there is a fairly wide dispersion of regulations, and what the Code is trying to do is to compile them so that they are in a single document”.
ENS: The reform establishes that citizens who change their city of residence, inform the Registry within a certain period or there will be sanctions. Do you think this measure is justified?
AP: I think that goes back a long way. If one looks, for example, at Law 1475, where it describes the subject of the electoral census and, additionally, describes the way to enter through registration, because the spirit in the end remains the same because it says that one can only register the identity card when you change residence.
And that is more or less the same spirit of what is being proposed. What happens is that we no longer talk about registration in the way we know it, but what it says is that every time you change your residence and go to participate in the electoral processes, you are obliged to update it.
If one puts it in context, it ends up being identical to the registration, what happens is that the registration has different times, different formats, and here what is sought is that it be permanent as long as the person changes their place of residence do the update.
ENS: Do you think it is worth increasing voting hours by 1 hour, until 5 in the afternoon?
AP: It is that the Code of 86 regarding electoral hours was created when the country did not have electrification coverage. So, in the vast majority of the national territory, the counting of the table was done with natural light, which is why we would go until 4 in the afternoon.
Right now the country does not have that format, it has a quite different situation in terms of electrification coverage. So we can easily extend voting hours, either by one or two hours, because that will allow more flexibility for participation.
That being the case, this is good for our electoral process because the schedule that currently governs it is from the last century.
ENS: Anything that worries you about the project to reform the Electoral Code?
AP: There is one thing that I have always said that if the issue of updating does not work, which some call ’empadronamiento’, it is linked to the selection of voting juries, because it says that voting juries must come from the electoral census. And it is no secret to anyone that many Colombians are on the electoral roll and no longer reside in the place where they are registered. “There are a number of people abroad.”
So, if people do not make this update, submit to the fine or do not care, simply a person who is, for example, in Miami, but is in the Colombian census, can be elected a voting jury at a table in Bogotá, and will end up sanctioned.
ENS: It is discussed to approve electronic voting in the Code. There are congressmen who say that this system is being discouraged in other countries. What do you think about it?
AP: I believe that automating the electoral process should not only be limited to electronic voting, it is that there are many procedures. For example, biometrics is automation, but we are not talking about electronic voting, what happens is that it helps to individualize the electorate.
One of the things that would come in handy, without changing people’s habit of voting, is, for example, counting the table. In a congressional election at a table they vote for 24% or 30% of the candidates. It means that in an E-14 return, 70% or more must be filled with asterisks. So that further complicates the results process.
However, if we automate the results process, that the scrutiny of the table comes out properly, only and exclusively with the candidates who obtained a vote, the rest of the process will be much easier, more effective, and more transparent.
Therefore, if electronic voting is going to be implemented, it is going to be implemented in such a way that the citizen does not reject it, but rather gradually without changing customs.