300 complaints over fraud in Colombia’s upcoming congress election
300 complaints over fraud in Colombia’s upcoming congress election
Mar 5, 2014 posted by Camilo Mejia Giraldo
Colombian NGO Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) said Tuesday it has received more than 300 complaints on electoral crimes and irregularities occurring in the country over the past 5 months. A total of 316 reports were submitted by Colombians from October 17 last year to March 3 through the “Pilas con el Voto” program, which allows people to highlight crimes and irregularities such as vote buying, registration fraud, and political extortion.
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Political extortion
The reports of “Political Intervention”, which climbed from 17 in January to 54 in February, refer to political or public entities that pressure their employees to support a particular party or candidate. MOE judicial adviser Daniela Sierra told Colombia Reports that “this kind of pressure by the employer can be applied by threatening employees and other contractors with employment termination.”
Vote Buying
In a similar fashion, reports of “Voter Corruption” rose from 11 in January to 51 in February and detailed specific vote buying schemes that ranged from $15 to $100 per vote in a number of states throughout the country.
In the municipality of Soledad in the northern state of Atlantico, there were reports that $75 were being offered for each vote for an undisclosed candidate.
Reports also stated that in the adjacent state of Bolivar voters were also being offered around $75 per vote, 50% of which would be paid when voters would register and the other 50% when the vote was verified.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/electoral-observer-receives-300-complaints-since-october/