On Wednesday, 19 February, in a meeting with political party delegates at the JCE, the electoral body distanced itself from any investigation into claims the automated voting equipment was “sabotaged.” Temístocles Montás, acting president of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) made the claim after the announcement of the suspension of the municipal election.
“We have absolutely nothing to do with that [with the investigations of the security agencies], nor do we know about that either, nor do we have anything to talk about that because that is happening outside of this institution,” said the president of the electoral body, Julio César Castaños Guzmán.
Likewise, Castaños Guzmán said that for the JCE to initiate an investigation on its own, it must be invested with a mandate to review the machines that presented the errors and that this must be done with the presence of the delegates of the parties and those designated for this task.
During a hearing with the political parties on Wednesday, 19 February 2020, with representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS), International Foundation of Electoral Systems (IFES), and Citizen Participation, Castaños Guzmán said the plenary of the JCE was warned the afternoon before the election of the flaws in the automated voting ballots, but not of the dimension of the problem, so they tried to fix it in time for the 7 am start time of the election.
On Sunday, 16 February 2020 in the morning, the president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Castaños Guzmán had told the political delegates that the electronic glitch in the automated voting system had happened because quality controls had not been implemented. Shortly after, the election was called off.
The JCE is now also blaming the e-voting glitch on the complexity of the election and last-minute changes by political parties. The election is now rescheduled for Sunday, 15 March 2020.
On Sunday, 16 February 2020, after the suspension of the election, the president of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) had claimed the election had been sabotaged when the party was winning.
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Diario Libre
Noticias SIN
20 February 2020