Members of both political parties harassed people in the JRVs at polling stations during the team test. In addition, there is pressure from TSE President, proposed by WIN, to abandon use of technology. Election technicians reject it.
A magistrate and a technician from the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) commented that since the implementation of the computer equipment for the February 28 elections, several events have taken place that seek to block the use of technology.
These attempts were exacerbated with the start of the election campaign and the test last weekend, when members of New Ideas and WIN harass members of the Vote Receiving Boards (JRVs) at different polling stations.
“Their attendance (New Ideas) at the polling stations was general, but on social media the most seen were those of San Salvador, for media coverage, but we do have a report that there was the presence of them (New Ideas and WIN) in many polling stations, not so of other political parties.It was precisely to harass people, with the aim of throwing false news and affecting the credibility of the Court Supreme Electoral in the process he is doing, “said the official who prefers to omit his name for security reasons.
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Events against the use of technology have been seen as the actions of both parties allied to the government of Nayib Bukele, who have questioned the effectiveness of the team. This position has also been seen in statements by the president of TSE, Dora Esmeralda Martínez, who said that she would propose to the collegiate body to return to the manual. In addition, the deputy Mario Tenorio, of the party WIN, in the commission of Electoral Reforms of the 8 of February asked that the use of the technology was suspended.
The electoral commission was attended by Magistrate Guillermo Wellman, who assured that the electoral process will be transparent and reliable. “Switching to a manual count is impossible, MP (Mario Tenorio). Why? We are not in time to make changes right now (…) the only thing that will change in this electoral process is nothing more than the count in the JRV with a laptop, “Wellman argued.
He added that the projection of the duration of the count is 7 hours and has maintained that if it starts at 5 pm, at 12 they will be concluding with the count of the three elections, according to a report by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (Ifes), presented by the magistrate.
He also defended himself from allegations of alleged fraud. “I didn’t know this post that the president (Nayib Bukele) of fraud leader has given me, but I want to tell them that I do not accept the post,” the magistrate noted in the commission.
While the TSE technician, who did not want to identify himself for fear of reprisals, said that the president of the collegiate body has contradicted himself regarding the use of technology.
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“If you listen to the statements of the president (of TSE) he says at one point ‘I want the scrutiny to be done manually’ but on the other hand he says that the system for table technology works, it’s like a contradiction, because if the technology on the table works, as she says, as it should be allowed to be used and not continue to be asked to be done manually, ”says another source.
He adds that the blockade on the use of technology was strengthened with the election campaign, where they assume there could be behind political interests, which are intended to show a malfunction of technology to slow down the processes.
In the face of today’s simulacrum
At the gates of a mock election, the TSE is making the logistical gear of technology, coordinating human resources, voting start-up and logistics within the centers to give a successful transmission test, where they hope to overcome the mistakes that were made during the test.
TSE sources comment that those in charge of the operation of the technology believe that it is ready for operation, and that if it continues with the manual, the Court does not have time or budget. They also believe that this would mean a setback, as even the political parties have complained in another election of the use of chemical paper that did not give fidelity in the acts and would also need the printed material for the ballot.
“We don’t have that at the moment and there is no budget either. We should also have those folios of minutes that by the way political parties were complaining about because as a chemical paper, only the first three copies (of the acts) are looked at and the others no longer read anything.But above all we should train JRV members on how to do the scrutiny manually.It is an annoying process that needs to be explained to people and we do not have time to train in this way. Rather than being a solution it’s a complication, ”the TTS technician explains about the return to the manual.
Technology works
Malcolm Cartagena, an election expert, believes that technology works. “We have seen that the program works, people are being trained in the team and it already has more than 60,000 trained people in the Supreme Electoral Court. And it is not possible that now, 15 days before the elections, an attempt will be made to remove this when not only money was already invested, but it has been invested mainly in the preparation of the human resource, I think it would be quite disastrous to try to train the 80,000 people so that they know how to have sheets of paper again as was done before, “he says.
He thinks that the next step is to correct the mistakes that occur in today’s drill and one more before the elections, because there is time to correct but not to change.
“In the drills, those who have to observe this, the security guarantee of the team, are only the people summoned by the Court. In a drill, to be an own and internal activity of the court, only the person who he has been summoned to operate the equipment, not another person to interfere or impersonate and use the equipment, ”Cartagena explains.
the test
On Sunday, February 7, the TSE conducted a technology test, where surmountable errors took place. The political parties WIN, New Ideas and CD were talking that technology does not work and even fraud, said the court technician, and regretted that these unfounded statements were joined by the Government.
Another goal on the day of the test was to measure the logistical deployment of moving the equipment nationwide, both in delivery times and the collection of materials.
They would also see the performance of the people in the JRVs who were trained. “Obviously this is a new challenge for the Court, we have not brought technology to the table on any previous occasion and now it means moving from 1,595 teams in past elections to moving 8,452 teams which are the ones that are going to use the tables plus the teams of contingency, ”the source says.
For software development, TSE has worked with country staff and no company was hired. These challenges led the Court to appoint a technical IT committee to address and lead the project on the use of technology.
However, “members of this commission have made a process of blocking the work done, and especially in the last two months to hinder the progress of this process,” says the TSE technician.
One of the members of the commission was the team coordinator, proposed by the TSE chairman, who was suspended from office after the volley blocked the process of using the technology during the test, the source says.
Obstacles to the implementation of table technology have caused delays in TSE, and some of these occurred last Sunday. The Court had scheduled trials from December 2020.
“There is such an intent to create as a curtain of false information around Court, and this is dangerous because all participants feel violated or threatened if there is no security in the process, and in raising this false news they create concern in competitors and that does not pay us as an institution, “says the source.
He adds that in the drill they hope that these parties will allow people to operate the technology without the harassment to which they were exposed in the previous test, as they are people who were trained by the TSE and are in the process of using of technology. This time the members of New Ideas and WIN tried to supplant the members of the JRVs when they tried to manipulate the team.
“People with party identification came to the polls and I’m not talking about all parties, I’m talking specifically about two parties, WIN and New Ideas and they came with a spirit not of contributing to the process but of pressuring JRV members that they were doing the test and making them feel bad, because JRV members are not systems engineers, but what we need for them to know how to use this technology is to know how to use a cell phone, that is enough to understand the logic of technology and registering ballots, ”he explains.
“We have information that in some polling stations, they (members of New Ideas and WIN) took the technology and sat down to test with the team. At the Concha Vídua de Graó polling station we had this problem, “I think there are even images on social media of how they had harassed a young lady who was operating the application on the computer. There is another center where JRV members felt so harassed that they have decided to resign.” said the TSE source.
He expresses that he expects the parties attending to respect the people in the JRVs and stop exerting pressure. He also calls on the National Civil Police (PNC) to help maintain order.
He points out that all polling stations report all the events that happen in the tests and on Sunday some reported that there were cases in which PNC agents sat down to use the technological equipment, where the support should be technician what should support the JRVs.
Commission lock
TTS sources comment that the amount of technology the Court will use for the elections is high. “There could be particular underlying interests in making these (blocking) decisions,” the source said, in the case of two members of the IT committee who have opposed decisions around the purchase of equipment and its operation.
The TSE source says the Court in Procurement Processes has followed the parameters of the Public Administration Procurement and Contracting Act (LACAP).
However, the members of the commission who oppose the technology, and who have caused blockade of decisions in the commission, before the purchase of the equipment proposed other routes that were not endorsed by the entire commission, by the which began to delay the work of TSE.
According to one of the sources, these people were looking for the suppliers of the equipment and those who would give the maintenance. “There could be other types of commitments here,” he argues.
One part that was not fully evaluated by the TSE was the connectivity of the transmission infrastructure where they have improved the software that will facilitate the work in the transmission.
They have also strengthened the technical support of those who will be in the drill operating the team in the polling stations to be on the lookout for any difficulty that arises on polling day, where there will be two people per polling station. In the larger centers, he stated that there will be one person in charge for every 10 JRVs.