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The Observation Mission Electoral already has evidence of complaints of the pressure that some companies have exerted on their workers to vote for a specific candidate.
The Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) ) has urged Colombian society to report any type of fraud or bribery that takes place in the midst of preparations for the presidential elections to be held in the South American country on May 29.
According to the agency, in Colombia there have already been complaints in which citizens expose the pressures that some companies have exerted on their workers to interfere in the decision to vote for a candidate. In this context, Colombian society is concerned about the increase in electoral violence and insecurity.
“Other of the elements and complaints that we have received from citizens have to do with the fact that employers force their workers to keep lists of their relatives, acquaintances or friends , committing to vote with one or another candidate, which is also prohibited by law”, communicated Aura Rodríguez, the coordinator of the MOE of the Bogotá Region.
The MOE pushes the authorities to investigate the companies that, according to the complaints filed, use scary speeches and make times difficult so that its employees can exercise their right to vote, an action that according to the organization violates several Substantive Labor Codes.
For its part, the Ombudsman’s Office has also warned of an increased risk in several municipalities in the country, mainly to because of the actions in recent weeks of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Clan del Golfo , one of the main drug-criminal organizations in Colombia. According to Carlos Camargo, the ombudsman for the department of Chocó, between February and May of this year the number of municipalities at extreme risk increased from 79 to 84 and from 195 to 206 municipalities with high risk of violations of the rights of citizens.
Where has there been more fraud and why?
According to data from the Pilas platform, the regions of Bogotá, Cali, Medellín and Bucaramanga are the ones that have registered the most presence of fraud. “One of the behaviors that we have reviewed in Bogotá has to do with anomalies in the electoral behavior of some polling stations,” Rodríguez said.
“Of course, complaints around buying and selling votes
In front of the There is little time left before the elections, both the Ombudsman’s Office and the MOE recommend implementing extraordinary actions so that the institutions protect the communities and adopt forceful intelligence strategies that guarantee the security conditions for participation in the elections, without forgetting to file complaints in the event of any irregularity.
