In Arequipa, where 4,215 voting tables were installed, there were two cases where members abandoned their work. The head of the Decentralized Office of Electoral Processes (ODPE) Cerro Colorado, Armando Echevarría, told El Comercio that in the IE Romeo Luna Victoria and in the IE Juan Bautista La Salle the members of two tables deserted and left the scrutiny halfway.
“In one location, around 4 in the morning they disappeared and left the minutes unfinished. They counted the presidential ones and left the rest uncounted. In the other voting location, they advanced presidential, national senators, regional senators, they even made deputies and the Andean parliament; they did not develop it. We filled out a record of the incident and they were sent to the jury because it does not have complete information,” Echevarría declared to this medium.
Polling station members who abandoned their work could receive administrative and criminal sanctions. According to the JNE, abandoning the table during any of its stages (installation, voting or scrutiny) is equivalent to not having fulfilled its function. Members who do not complete their work are sanctioned with a fine of S/ 275. In addition, they would lose the bonus of S/ 165 because they did not complete the day.
The head of the JNE’s Disconcerted Office in Arequipa, Roberto Vega, declared that these cases will be evaluated by the relevant authorities in order to seek correction or responsibility. “While it is true that the hours of scrutiny have been prolonged due to the complexity of the process, that is no reason to abandon that civic duty,” he noted.
Investigation.
For its part, the Third Office of the Second Provincial Corporate Criminal Prosecutor’s Office of Arequipa began a preliminary investigation against the board members who abandoned their positions. According to the information they have, in one of the cases, the electoral inspector found voting table No. 007497 empty, with the electoral material out of custody. In the place they searched for the board members and did not find them. The police verification was carried out and they proceeded to collect the electoral material for packaging in the respective amphora.
Provincial prosecutor Herbert Rivera Begazo ordered the start of a preliminary investigation for 30 days for the alleged electoral crime. Among the procedures arranged are taking the statements of the JNE supervisory staff, ONPE employees, polling station members, police personnel assigned to the voting location, among others.
The manager of the ONPE Regional Coordination Office in Arequipa, Brenda López, in an interview with El Comercio indicated that there are approximately 300 voters at each voting station. He also clarified that they are the only two cases of table abandonment in the entire region.
“What we do have is 34 observed minutes that represent 0.8%. They are for different reasons: material error, because the figures do not match, because signatures are missing and other reasons. Those minutes were referred to the corresponding electoral jury,” Brenda López declared to this medium.
In Arequipa, 1,226,525 citizens were authorized to vote. The ONPE specialist pointed out that an approximate 20% absenteeism rate has been verified.
