After more than 10 hours of discussion, the draft reform of the Electoral Code was approved this Wednesday in the First Commission of the Senate, which has not undergone changes in 35 years since its issuance.
The initiative promoted by the National Registrar, Alexander Vega, among other things, aims to establish electronic voting to vote in all electoral events for the choice of mayors, governors, councilors, deputies, representatives to the chamber, senators and president and vice president of the Republic.
In about 60 articles, of the 277 that the initiative has, amending proposals were presented, related to the adoption of technological instruments for voting, as well as computer programs for the pre-count and scrutiny of the different electoral contests, topics that consumed the longest discussion time from the different benches.
The largest number of objections were presented by opposition senators Paloma Valencia Laserna and María Fernanda Cabal Molina, Centro Democrático, as well as Ariel Ávila Martínez and Humberto de la Calle Lombana, Alianza Verde Centro Esperanza Coalition; María José Pizarro Rodríguez, Historical Pact Coalition and Alejandro Carlos Chacón, Liberal Party, many of whom remained as records to be discussed in the plenary of the corporation.
The most intense discussion took place on the computer programs that would serve as support for the elections, particularly in relation to the software for pre-counting, counting, and scrutiny and the source code, the architecture of the software.
The new electoral code contemplates fines for citizens who do not update their residence information, severely punishes electoral transhumance, and proposes greater commitments from local and regional authorities, to guarantee that all citizens, regardless of the region where they reside, can exercise the right to elect and be elected.
Now, the reform of the electoral code goes to discussion in the plenary session of the Senate, where intense debates are announced, since many of the congressmen consider that powers are being granted to the Registrar’s Office that exceed the guidelines of the 1991 Constitution. With RSF