The Concertación made the decision to use the national register in the internal elections on December 18, so that those affiliated with any party and those not affiliated can participate to choose the presidential tag that will compete against the Colorado Party.
The Colorado Party appealed to the Electoral Court to prevent the opposition bloc from using the electoral roll in the upcoming internal elections. The ANR justified the measure alleging that, in this way, military personnel or magistrates and even foreigners can vote in internal elections, and not exclusively those who are affiliated with political parties.
The opposition Coalition defended its position and yesterday presented the answer to the ANR’s claim, alleging that the Permanent Civic Registry is for public use and this quality allows them to use it as a database to prepare their own register for the next inmates, revealed Guillermo Ferreiro, candidate for deputy for the Febrerista Revolutionary Party (PRF) and one of the main promoters of the opposition bloc.
“First, we question the legitimacy that the ANR has to question what registry we are going to use. We do not get involved in their registry, despite the fact that we know that there are affiliates who are in the ANR registry against their will, through criminal acts of forging signatures. It does not affect them from any point of view that a citizen is enabled to vote”; he sentenced.
Along these same lines, Ferreiro emphasized that “the Civic Registry is for public use and that allows us to use it as a database to prepare the register. The Civic Registry is not going to be our register, but rather the base that we use to prepare our own register”.
In response to the claim of the ANR, the opposition bloc also requested the direct intervention or submission of the Superior Court of Electoral Justice based on a legal concept called “per saltum.”
“We seek that the first instance, which is the Second Chamber Electoral Court of the Capital, does not understand this, but rather that it go directly to the TSJE in view of the need to shorten the deadlines. Likewise, there is also institutional risk,” he commented.
The opposition bloc has “high and positive expectations” regarding the determination that the TSJE may make. On the other hand, there is already a precedent: a jurisprudence used during the candidacy of Mario Ferreiro.
“Not even in the case of Mario Ferreiro did the ANR dare to go so far. We have a good court that already has a favorable record and we believe that this can practically become a formality. Although, what is worrying is that they resort to that den of corruption that is the Supreme Court of Justice, but we are not going to stop either. We are not going to allow even the Court to want to shelve the file”, he maintained.
Ferreiro concluded that “the ANR has to understand that first it has to purge its registry of the people they got forging signatures and then they have to come and mess with our registry. They have to stop treating people like cattle.”
NO DATE OF POSSIBLE RESOLUTION
Carlos María Ljubetic, director of Electoral Processes of the Electoral Justice, recalled that now the TSJE must decide whether or not to “deal with the issue per saltum.”
Regarding the use of the national registry, Ljubetic mentioned that each political group must provide the TSJE with its registry so that the institution can carry out the corresponding certification. “I don’t know how they’re going to ask for it to be done,” he said.
The director of Electoral Processes of the Electoral Justice added that the function in this case of the TSJE is to verify that the voter is actually in the Civic Registry and what is the location in which he is authorized to vote.
In fact, article 353 of Law 834/96 of the Paraguayan Electoral Code establishes that the lists prepared by the political parties to be used in their internal elections must be sent to the Superior Court of Electoral Justice, for their consideration and certification.
“They want to use the National Register and that is not usual and they request that we extract those who are authorized to vote. We still have to decide what we are going to do and we will do what is determined, ”he stressed.
Ljubetic recalled that the National Concertation should be approved on Friday, July 8, which now seems unlikely because there is no court so far. The members of the Electoral Court, which must address this issue, are challenged.
“Since the Court is challenged, I don’t know if it will be able to resolve issue 8,” he said.
The director of Electoral Processes of the Electoral Justice considered that there is still time for the issue to be resolved.
“It will not imply significant variations in the electoral schedule, nothing more than instead of being on the 8th, the approval will take a few days, but the court that accepts the Concertación must express its opinion regarding whether or not it can be used. pattern,” he stressed.
