Bolivia: More Than 7 Million Voters Partially Elect High Courts Judges
Aymara women are waiting to cast their vote during the judicial elections this Sunday in La Paz (Bolivia). Photo: EFE/ Luis Gandarillas
December 15, 2024 Hour: 3:58 pm
On Sunday, more than 7,3 million Bolivians entitled to vote, will “partially elect”, for the third time, through popular vote, to the highest authorities of the Judicial Body and the Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP).
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Oscar Hassenteufel, president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) called “all the Bolivian people to go to the polls to cast their vote” clarifying that Bolivians “know” that only 19 authorities will be elected out of the 26 that should have been chosen “but no one should stay in their home, everyone should exercise their right to vote and choose, choosing from the various options and avoiding the blank and void vote that leads to nothing.”
The 5,597 polling sites throughout the country opened at 08:00 local time (12:00 GMT) and will operate for eight hours continuously until 16:00 (20:00 GMT), when the schools are scheduled to close, and will be supervised for 8,084 notaries and 198,114 juries distributed in 33,019 polling stations.
Due to a ruling of the Constitutional Court, this time the elections are held entirely only in La Paz, Oruro, Potosí and Chuquisaca, while in Beni, Pando, Cochabamba, Tarija and Santa Cruz will not be able to elect the judges of the TCP and in the first two departments they will also not vote for the candidates to the TSJ.
For his part, the Bolivian president Luis Arce urged his compatriots to exercise their right to vote in the judicial elections “based on the best candidate of his or her choice” and said this kind of election “mark an important milestone in democracy.”
So far, with approximately three hours to go before the polling stations close, the president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Óscar Hassenteufel said that the process is proceeding smoothly and without major incidents.
“We can confirm that in all departments the polling stations have opened at a high percentage of the time scheduled, 8:00 (12:00 GMT). Some have been delayed a little, but at this point we can say that 100 percent of the tables are working,” Hassenteufel said at a press conference in La Paz.
Autor: ACJ
Fuente: ABI // EFE // teleSURtv.net