The Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), Juan José Ossa, referred to health qualms about the elections of 10 and 11 April (as part of the increase in coronavirus contagion), in which councillors, mayors, regional and conventional constituent governors converge. In this regard, the Secretary of State in which there will be “preferred spaces for certain groups” and that the health situation “will be better”.
“It’s a single vote, a single election act, where people choose whether they go on Saturday or Sunday. It’s not two elections, you don’t have to go Saturday and Sunday, which is something I’ve seen that afflicts people when they understand it. You’re going to be able to choose when you vote, regardless of your age rank,” Ossa said in conversation with Radio DNA.
“However, on Saturday there will be preferred spaces for certain groups, which are mainly older adults, pregnant women, people with some form of disability and chronically ill. Why aren’t these exclusive schedules? It doesn’t make sense that if there are clear tables you can’t go to vote,” the minister added.
The segpres headline explained that the pandemic scenario “reinforces the need to make the election in two days.” “I think in that sense it’s a good policy. We think things are going to be better. While critical beds have been declining, relevant efforts are also being made in this area,” he said.
“If there is one thing that characterizes our electoral processes, it is that the results are not delivered too late, let alone the next day. So, if we added more voting time to it, we obviously achieved that goal more calmly. If it had only been an election on Sunday, maybe we wouldn’t know the results that night,” Ossa stressed.
Custody of ballot boxes
The Secretary of State also delivered details on the custody of the ballot boxes, a point of conflict as elections were in two days.
“Today there are already sealing mechanisms for the custody of boxes with blank votes, which are obviously going to be replicated more intensely. They are escapes that if you try to remove them, they leave a witness who necessarily allows to conclude that an urn has been tried to intervene,” he said.
“The second thing is that the Servel, this week or next, is going to add safety mechanisms for sealing the ballot boxes. He’s in talks with several providers and although I can’t give him the detail, because it’s up to Servel, he’s going to make an extra effort,” he added.
