During a press breakfast at the Listin Diario newspaper, the president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) Julio Cesar Castaños Guzmán expressed confidence all will go well with the municipal election on Sunday, 16 February 2020, because “all is set up.” He said at the close of the polls, the electoral boards will simultaneously transmit the tallies to the JCE, the political parties and the media that request this. He said it is the municipal electoral boards that will consolidate the bulletins, give the results, proclaim the winning candidates and swear them in.
“Here we are all going to play with the same cards. Everyone will have the same data,” he emphasized, while highlighting the measures that have been taken to protect the voting and transmission system.
A maximum of 600 voters have been allocated to the 16,032 voting stations nationwide. These will be open for voting from 7am to 5pm. In the municipal elections, 158 mayors, 1,164 city councilors, 235 municipal board directors and 735 municipal district directors will be elected.
Voting will be automated in 18 of the 158 municipalities that concentrate 62% of the voters. Voting will be by printed ballot in 140 municipalities. There will be 1,772 automated voting stations.
He said the vote will be much more closely monitored and scrutinized than one might imagine. At least 118 international observers have registered to vote from organizations such as the Union of Electoral Organizations (UNIORE), the Organization of American States (OAS), the computer company Microsoft, political parties, the International Foundation of Electoral Systems (IFES), the Central American Parliament, among others. At the local level, the Participación Ciudadana movement has accredited 1,801 observers.
This municipal election, candidates for city councilors and members of the board will be chosen by preferential vote, which allows citizens to choose their candidates directly, but the drag on the mayors is maintained. This means that when voting for a city councilor, the vote automatically goes to the mayor candidate of the same party.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
Elecciones 2020
11 February 2020