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TSJE rules out a new audit of voting machines before the municipal elections
Carlos María Ljubetic said an additional technical review is no longer feasible because the equipment distribution process is already underway. He also rejected claims of alleged failures and said the software was corrected to avoid confusion detected in the primaries.
The Superior Court of Electoral Justice of Paraguay rejected the request for a new technical verification of the voting machines that will be used in the municipal elections on October 4, following the objections raised by Liberal Senator Ever Villalba.
According to La Nación Paraguay, the director of Electoral Processes at the TSJE, Carlos María Ljubetic, said that moving ahead now with a new audit of the hardware and software is unfeasible because the logistical operation for transporting the equipment has already begun. According to his explanation, 80% of the machines were already in condition to be loaded onto trucks and the electoral kits already included both the pendrive with the software and the identification credential for each polling station.
Ljubetic also recalled, again according to La Nación Paraguay, that the Electoral Justice had set February as the deadline for the technical representatives of the parties to carry out the corresponding verification. During that period, he added, technicians appointed by 48 political associations were presented.
The official also responded to criticism over the operation of the machines. He noted that the chief technician appointed by the Liberal Party informed that party that the equipment did not present problems, according to what was published by La Nación Paraguay.
Regarding the complaint linked to polling stations with zero votes, Ljubetic said it was a procedural error in six polling stations out of a total of 14,000 during the party primaries. He explained that, due to a lack of training, polling station members ordered the printing of the TREP zero report without first passing the ballots through the machine.
Again according to the same outlet, he said the software was modified to prevent that situation from happening again. With that change, the zero report can no longer be printed if at least one ballot has not first been registered through the machine reader.
Ljubetic also said opposition candidates contacted the electoral authority to express concern about the effect of those complaints on turnout, considering that they could discourage voters.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
