“A group of armed people arrived at the address of the polling station, kneaded the officials and the CAE (Electoral Assistant Trainer) against the wall, took the ballots and marked them; subsequently, they deposited them in the ballot boxes.”
This is the complaint that a polling station official reported to the INE for acts of violence that occurred in District 10 of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, last Sunday, during the voting day in the consultation to revoke the mandate. The events occurred in the basic and contiguous boxes of section 242, which led to the annulment of the votes contained in those ballot boxes.
“A group of villagers armed with machetes showed up at the polling station threatening the officials, closing the auditorium where the polling station was installed and evicting the officials,” says another report filed in sections 241 and 242 of District 38 of Texcoco, State of Mexico.
In that municipality, governed by Morena, it was decided to suspend voting in eight polling stations for this type of threats and acts of violence.
“A group of approximately 30 people showed up at the polling station, intimidating the president of the polling station, demanding that the documentation be removed or burned,” the ballot box of section 240 of Texcoco was reported.
In another case, it was documented that residents of Nexquipayac, belonging to Atenco, arrived at the basic and contiguous boxes of section 243 of Texcoco and threatened the officials, “so initially the location of the box was changed, however, they again showed up at the alternate address intimidating the officials.”
The acts of violence and threats totaled 16 cases last Sunday and also occurred in districts of Michoacán and Chiapas.
In several cases, the INE decided to annul the votes contained in the altered ballot boxes, but in others it admitted to counting the votes cast before the suspension of participation was determined to protect the safety of officials and citizens.
The PRD asked the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) to annul the entire revocation process, due to systematic anomalies that it claims to have detected in hundreds of polling places, not only because of the amagos and acts of coercion to the free vote, but also because of the 32 cases in which more votes were registered than those provided for in the nominal list, as revealed Political Animal.
In Chiapas, where the highest number of irregularities in polling stations was reported nationwide, there was not only coercion of the vote, but carrying and theft of ballots, according to the complaints of trainers and polling station officials sent to the INE.
“As a trainer I was at the polling station facility, and I made sure, along with the polling station officials, that the ballots were complete, and then I went out to go through my other boxes to send my report. When I return, I see that there were a good number of voters but there were only a few ballots left,” says a report collected in section 1890 of District 10 of Villaflores, Chiapas.
“I asked the polling station president what had happened and they told me that there was a time when many citizens showed up to vote and had to help some older adults. They believe that it was at that time that the ballots could be stolen, that’s why many ballots were needed.”
In that district, however, the vote was not annulled. In both manipulated ballot boxes, the ballots reappeared and 2,647 votes were counted, which meant an over-participation of 100.9%, since, according to the nominal list, 2,623 people could vote. The majority of the votes were in support of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In section 634 of Bochil, it was reported that citizens “interrupted the vote, wanting to snatch the electoral packages from the officials of the polling station, for which there was confrontation with people who were in line.”
In that section, the votes were not annulled and totaled 3,885, 100.6% of the participation. In this case, the majority of the votes were also in support of the “ratification” of López Obrador.
In Michoacán, in section 1806 of Pátzcuaro, it was reported that “a group of people arrived during the installation of the polling station denying citizens the way to exercise the vote, closing the doors of the facilities and taking the ballots.” Those votes were annulled.
“It is proven that there was physical violence against voters and polling station officials, as shown in the incident sheet of the polling station officials themselves and in the minutes of the election day, which states that the carrying of people who culminated in stealing ballots, aggressionones and threats with sharp instruments such as machetes and firearms against polling station officials, as well as threats against poll burning officials, so this electoral authority must consider the nullity of the vote received in these boxes,” the PRD said.
The PRD demands nullity
In its challenge, the PRD documented that in several states there were 100 cases where officials reported the existence of propaganda inside or outside the polling station, which violated the right to free vote, and 379 cases where the representative of a party, or someone outside the polling station, tried to influence the suffrage of citizens.
The PRD also reported that 21 polling stations were relocated without a justification provided for in the electoral regulations, which disoriented the citizens, and that in 789 ballot boxes the voting of people who did not belong to the section where they cast their vote was allowed to vote.
Due to the systematicity of the irregularities, the party of the Aztec sun asked the TEPJF to annul the entire recall consultation process, as the violation of the principles of free and authentic elections, the certainty and legality of the electoral process, and the fairness of the contest were accredited.
This week, the TEPJF received the documentation sent to it by the INE on the recall consultation. Now, it will proceed to analyze it to pronounce on the validity or not of the exercise.
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