November 17, 2022, 12:48 PM
November 17, 2022, 12:48 PM
The Government announced that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) will receive “official data” on the population from the next Population and Housing Census in September 2024.
The Minister of Planning, Sergio Cusicanquipointed out on Sunday —20 minutes before the town hall meeting— that these data were going to reach the TSE in December 2024. However, this same authority specified, this Thursday, that the census information will arrive in September of that year.
“The National Statistics Institute (INE) it will work to be able to issue the official population results within the framework of the Population and Housing Census to allow the distribution of economic resources by co-participation in the month of November 2024; these results will also be sent to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), affirmed the minister
Cusicanqui made this announcement shortly after the position established by the TSE in the sense that it will not be able to assign new seats or delimit the new constituencies if the information arrives in December 2024. This taking into account the Decree 4824which set the date of the next census for March 23, precisely, 2024.
The decree, approved by President Luis Arce in the context of the indefinite strike that has been taking place in Santa Cruz since October 22, does not require the delivery of the TSE data, but establishes that the INE will deliver the information so that as of September 2024, the data is distributed according to the new demographic reality of the country.
Thus, Decree 4824, approved by Arce on November 11, has a single article with two sections. The first determines that the registration date is March 23, 2024 and the second instructs the dissemination of “preliminary results” in September of that year.
Minister Cusicanqui clarified that all the results delivered by the INE “are official”, when asked about the legal scope of these “preliminary results”.
“These are the official results that the INE will issue and they will be sent to the TSE so that this instance, within the framework of the constitutional mandate, can start all the work related to the new redistribution of seats,” he said.
The minister added that, in December 2024, the INE will receive more precise data “with minimal disaggregation” of apple trees and population in municipalities. He specified that, after these two publications, the Institute will continue working on the disaggregation of the rest of the census data.
“The TSE needs to have official census dataWe are not talking about preliminaries or finals; They are official census data. We must receive this information with due opportunity. If we receive it in the month of December 2024, it is already extemporaneous; it will no longer be possible to carry out that previous work; these two previous tasks: Assignment of seats and delimitation of constituencies”, the president of the TSE stated earlier, Oscar Hassenteufel.
The TSE authority announced that the next national elections should be held in September 2025 with the forecast of a second round for October of that year. This with a view to the oath of the new authorities for November 8, 2025.
The TSE prepares the bill with the new allocation of seats that the Legislature approves. With this norm, this body proceeds with the delimitation of the constituencies based on technical criteria and, according to Hassenteufel, requires “information on the number of inhabitants by municipalities and apple trees”.
Currently, La Paz has 29 deputies; Santa Cruz, 28; Cochabamba, 19; Potosi, 13; Chuquisaca, 10; Tarija, nine; Oruro, nine; Beni, eight; and Pando, five.
The application of census data impacts the House of Representativess. There are 130 seats, 60 of which are distributed according to population criteria and 63 single-member constituencies are delimited (27 are in urban centers, while 36 are in the urban areas of the country) and seven for indigenous nations.
The president of the TSE explained that information on human development indicators is also requiredbased on poverty and access to services, so that political representation is balanced.
