The polling jurors for the upcoming presidential elections in Colombia have already been appointed. They are among the most important actors in all electoral processes in the country, but they will have greater relevance on the May 31 election day (first round) due to the sustained campaign of discrediting over alleged fraud that begins from the national government itself.
The National Civil Registry reported that 850,871 polling jurors are already ready for that day. Of that total, 708,259 are principal jurors and 142,612 are alternates. The selection was carried out through draws between May 4 and 6 on the platform provided by the Registry. Alternate jurors are citizens selected to replace those who, due to force majeure, are unable to perform this duty on election day.
President Petro casts doubt on polling jurors
The performance of polling jurors has been questioned by President Gustavo Petro since the last legislative elections in March. On that occasion, the president stated that “jurors are appointed by private companies whose owner already has his candidate and, as happened in Valle del Cauca, they train jurors in the art of making their candidate win.”
According to President Petro, that is “the way” in which employees (who were selected as polling jurors) keep their positions and “help their executioners who later, through their candidates turned congressmen and presidents, will make laws against workers.”
In reality, for the upcoming presidential elections, 342,315 appointed polling jurors correspond to employees of private companies. Another 223,942 are students, 125,381 are teachers, 123,536 are public officials, and 35,697 are supporters of political organizations.
The Registry clarified that public entities, private companies, educational institutions, and political groups nominated a total of 2,372,773 citizens. The draws were carried out with the participation of representatives of oversight bodies, political organizations, the Public Force, local authorities, among other entities.
Registry asks Colombia to give its vote of confidence
The distrust that has been sought to be generated around the electoral process led the Registry to launch the campaign “Danos tu voto de confianza” (“Give us your vote of confidence”), based on the idea that “to distrust the electoral process is to distrust the Colombian people,” because it is the people themselves, represented among others by polling jurors, who will be responsible for ensuring the transparency of the elections.
Polling jurors have the duty of managing the voting process in several stages: receiving citizens’ identity documents and verifying them on form E-10; recording each voter’s full name on form E-11; signing and handing the ballot to the voter; safeguarding the ballot box; filling out and delivering to the voter the electoral certificate (if applicable) together with the identity document; conducting the polling station counts; recording results in electoral documents; and delivering the electoral materials to the Registry’s polling station delegate.
Colombians can check whether they were appointed as polling jurors through the “aVotar” app, which can be downloaded for free on Google Play and the App Store, and on the website of the Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil, by clicking on the “Consult polling juror” button. In addition, the place, date, and time of training will be provided there.
The Registry also recalled that serving as a polling juror is mandatory and that those who, without just cause, fail to perform their duties or abandon them may be dismissed from their position, in the case of public servants, and those who are not public servants must pay a fine of up to ten (10) current legal monthly minimum wages.
Polling jurors who work in the public or private sector will be entitled to one (1) compensatory paid day of rest, which may be taken within 45 working days following the election.