November 18, 2022, 4:00 AM
November 18, 2022, 4:00 AM
Deadlines. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) announced yesterday that if the “official data” of the population from the next census arrives in December 2024, it will no longer be possible to assign seats nor delimit the new constituencies for the 2025 national elections.
Faced with this observed deadline, the Minister of Planning, Sergio Cusicanqui, promised to deliver the “official” information to the TSE, this time, in September 2024.
The new promise of the Government is adjusted, now, to the calendar presented by the president of the Electoral Body, Óscar Hassenteufel, who assured that “ideally” the data should be available one year before the scheduled national election, precisely, for the month of September 2025.
The minister thus launched the second promise on the presentation of census data, whose registration is scheduled for March 23, 2024, according to the terms of Decree 4824, the third signed by President Luis Arce to establish the date of the next census, but in the context of the claim led by Santa Cruz in favor of a “timely, fair and transparent” census.
The rector of the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University (UAGRM), Vicente Cuéllar, and the president of the Civic Committee Rómulo Calvo, demanded that “the promises” be guaranteed with a law and thus the demand for the timely census, endorsed in the town halls of September 30 and November 13 of this year, can be met.
“The people will remain firm until this situation is resolved and our rights are respected, for a fair and timely census, as well as the application of the results in accordance with the law”, Calvo pointed out.
Hassenteufel had issued the explanation four days after Cusicanqui’s first announcement about the delivery of population data to the TSE. The minister said on Sunday —20 minutes before the town hall— that these data were going to be delivered in December 2024
Then, he considered that the TSE was given the necessary time to distribute the seats. Yesterday another announcement came out that reinforced the demand to have a law to ratify these promises, but the minister assured that this norm will no longer be necessary.
“The TSE needs to have official census data. We are not talking if they are preliminary or final; 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: allocation of seats and delimitation of constituencies”, the president of the TSE specified at a press conference.
The electoral authority made this announcement after a collegiate evaluation of the medium and long-term agenda of this state body.
He explained that, after the elections of September 2025, the forecast of a second round must be marked, one month later, so that on November 8 of that year the presidential change takes place for a new constitutional period of five years.
“The National Institute of Statistics (INE) 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 September 2024; those results will also be sent to the TSE”, Minister Cusicanqui said yesterday, one hour after the collegiate report presented by Hassenteufel together with the rest of the members.
Both the first and the second announcement by Minister Cusicanqui take Decree 4824 into account. This rule, approved by President Luis Arce in the context of the indefinite strike that has been in force in Santa Cruz since October 22, does not require the delivery of the data from the TSE, but establishes that, as of September 2024, the data will be distributed based on the new and updated demographic reality of the country.
The norm approved on November 11 has a single article with two sections. The first determines that the registration date will be held on March 23, 2024 and the second instructs the dissemination of “preliminary results” in September of that year. The president of the TSE clarified, after the insistence of the journalists, that only “official” data is recognized.
About, Cusicanqui clarified that all the results delivered by the INE “are official”, when asked about the legal scope of those “preliminary results” that are mentioned in the last Decree for the census signed by the Head of State. “Those are the official results that the INE is going to 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 pointed out.
The minister added, yes, 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.
With these “official” data from the census, the TSE must prepare the bill with the new allocation of seats. “It is important that the Legislative Assembly approve this law without further delay,” Hassenteufel stressed. to insist on the request for the “official” data from the census in September 2024. “Information on the number of inhabitants by municipalities and apple trees” is required to proceed, with the new law in force, to the delimitation of districts with data from the next population and housing census.
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 Chamber of Deputies. 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 is also required on human development indicators, based on poverty and access to services, so that political representation is balanced between the regions.
“The TSE has given the line to the Government in accordance with times and deadlines technically considered to establish the redistribution of seats. Now it’s up to President (Luis) Arce, his ministers and the director of the INE, We don’t know it until now, say what you are going to do to solve this problem”, said the first vice president of the Civic Committee, Fernando Larach, who ratified the continuity of the strike that reaches 28 days.
The first census calendar presented by the INE on October 11 indicated that with a registration in 2024, The results were going to be presented in August 2025, just one month before the national elections of that year. Moreover, it left the presentation of complementary studies until the end of 2026 and with those times the allocation of seats was postponed to 2030.
On October 22, when the strike began, the Government offered to distribute resources on the first population data, but he did not mention the schedule to allocate the seats in Deputies.
