Paraguay
Derlis Maidana questioned the request to review voting machines ahead of the municipal elections
The Colorado senator rejected the proposal promoted by Éver Villalba to subject the system to an audit just days before the elections. He also defended the TSJE’s actions and the operation of the TREP.
Senator Derlis Maidana criticized the initiative by Liberal lawmaker Éver Villalba, who is seeking for the Tribunal Superior de Justicia Electoral to carry out an audit of the voting machines just days before the municipal elections on October 4.
According to ABC Color, Maidana said that in electoral matters deadlines are strict and that moving ahead with a review of that kind at this stage makes no sense. In that context, he recalled that Carlos Díaz Casabianca, technical attorney for the Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico, took part in the source code reviews and signed the record related to the system’s traceability and security.
The senator considered that the proposal does not respond to a real technical objection, but rather to a maneuver to cast doubt on the electoral process ahead of a possible opposition defeat in competitive districts.
According to ABC Color, he also downplayed complaints about alleged flaws in voting records and said that the cases mentioned, such as the early issuance of a zero act, were isolated human errors that the Electoral Justice had already clarified and corrected.
Maidana also took aim at the leadership of the PLRA and pointed out that in six districts of the Central department it failed to submit on time the lists of its representatives for the polling stations.
In his analysis, the lawmaker linked these objections to conduct he attributed to sectors of the opposition and the so-called third space, whom he accused of resorting to public complaints to discredit electoral processes when the results do not favor them. As a precedent, he mentioned the protests after the 2023 general elections promoted by the sector of Paraguayo Cubas, which, he said, did not provide evidence of fraud before the competent bodies.
The senator also backed the composition of the TSJE and highlighted the reliability of the Sistema de Transmisión de Resultados Electorales Preliminares. He also said that the structure of the Asociación Nacional Republicana will guarantee oversight of election day through the presence of attorneys and polling station officials throughout the country.
Finally, he praised the open-list system and said the ruling party caucus will defend the institutional integrity of the TSJE in Wednesday’s session. He also called on political leaders to recognize the official results and support an orderly transition in the municipalities.
Sources
Sobre esta nota. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not do original reporting on this event.
