Bolivia: Polling Stations Close in High Court Judges Election
Photograph showing ballots at a polling station during the judicial elections this Sunday in Santa Cruz (Bolivia). Photo: EFE/ Juan Carlos Torrejon
December 15, 2024 Hour: 6:01 pm
The more than 33.000 polling stations installed in Bolivia began to close this Sunday in the nine regions entitled by the Supreme Electoral Tribune, without incident, after the judicial elections to elect 19 of the country’s 26 high court judges.
RELATED:
Bolivia: More Than 7 Million Voters Partially Elect High Courts Judges
“We have not had problems in opening the polling stations and also in the matter of lack of electoral material (…). We have not had any reports of an unopened table”, reported to local media the TSE’s speaker Gustavo Ávila.
More than 7.3 million Bolivians are eligible to vote this Sunday to elect 19 of the 26 judges of the Supreme Courts of Justice (TSJ), Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP), Agroambiental (TA) and the Council of the Magistracy.
Due to a constitutional error, this time the elections were held entirely 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 did not vote for the candidates to the TSJ.
In the nine regions of the Andean country, 33,019 polling stations were set up; some had some delay in opening, but in most cases, the electoral juries met the established time, 8:00 local time (12:00 GTM), reported the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE).
On the other hand, international observers have made a “positve evaluation” of the electoral process.
Edison Lanza, head of the Organization of American States (OAS) Election Observation Mission, told local press that “The citizenry is attending in a very important way, a significant number (of people) are exercising their right to vote, I would say that the evaluation at this time, at this hour, is positive.”
Other international delegations have reached Bolivia. Mexico sent a delegation with the objective of collecting experiences on the development of judicial elections in the South American country, with a view to similar elections that it plans to hold in 2025.
Autor: ACJ
Fuente: EFE // ABI // teleSURtv