An election remark mission from the European Union has denied experiences of malfeasance in Colombia’s current presidential race, regardless of rumours on the contrary.
On Tuesday, the top of the EU Election Remark Mission, Esteban Gonzalez Pons, introduced the group’s preliminary evaluation.
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Election observers discovered that Sunday’s election was “clear, orderly, and clean”, and Gonzalez Pons hailed it as successful for democracy.
“As soon as once more, Colombia has given a lesson in democracy,” Gonzalez Pons mentioned in a statement.
“Regardless of the presence of unlawful armed teams in elements of the nation, regardless of questions concerning the electoral system, and regardless of rising polarisation, Colombia has introduced the poll bins to each nook of the nation.”
The mission despatched 143 observers to watch 591 polling stations in Colombia, as voters forged their ballots within the first spherical of a heated presidential race.
After polls closed on Sunday, two frontrunners rapidly emerged: far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda. They’ll proceed to a June 21 run-off.
However regardless of pre-election polls displaying Cepeda to be the favorite, the outcomes put de la Espriella, a political newcomer, forward within the poll depend.
The lawyer received 43.7 p.c of the vote, in contrast with Cepeda’s 40.9 p.c.
Cepeda ran because the consultant for the governing Historic Pact occasion, based by outgoing President Gustavo Petro, who has reached his time period restrict.
Because the outcomes turned clear, Petro took to social media to lift questions concerning the vote tally.
“As President, I don’t settle for the outcomes of the preliminary depend,” Petro wrote on Sunday, pointing to the involvement of personal companies. He accused their software program of including “a whole lot of hundreds of votes” to the election tally.
“Due to this fact — and in accordance with the regulation — the one binding outcomes that the President will acknowledge and settle for are these produced by the oversight commissions, that are presided over by judges of the Republic.”
Within the days since, Petro has continued to post about “potential fraud” and accused de la Espriella of shopping for votes.
Whereas Cepeda himself initially declined to touch upon the outcomes, he has since conceded no irregularities within the race.
De la Espriella, in the meantime, has seized on Petro’s remarks to accuse the outgoing chief and Cepeda of making an attempt to subvert Colombia’s democracy.
“Petro and his puppet — as I’ve been warning since earlier than the marketing campaign started — intend to steal our democracy,” de la Espriella posted.
Colombia isn’t any stranger to claims of vote-buying and election fraud. After the 2014 legislative election, as an example, Colombia’s Council of State discovered sure irregularities within the outcomes, together with discrepancies within the tally sheets.
However in its evaluation on Tuesday, the European Union mission discovered no such proof.
“Regardless of the polarization, disinformation and tensions that marked the marketing campaign, election day — based mostly on what we’ve got noticed on the bottom — proceeded peacefully, in an orderly method, with broad citizen participation and respect for democratic establishments,” mentioned Leire Pajín Iraola, who headed a European Parliament delegation as a part of the mission.
She added that she hoped the second spherical of voting would unfold equally easily.
“We belief that the second spherical will even unfold peacefully and democratically, with out interference of any variety, and with full respect for Colombia’s sovereignty and the desire of its residents .”
