“Abstentions” and “totality of ballots”, terms that disturb

According to figures provided by the National Electoral Council (CNE for its Spanish acronym) of total voters and the number of abstentions in the elections held last Sunday, political organizations and social actors, who complained of “inconsistencies” in the official data, were confused.

The CNE also had claimed that the voters’ roll was 11,666,478, however, the figure released yesterday on its official website with the results of the official count was 11,675,441 ie, over 8,963 more people.

The director of the polling firm Market, Blasco Peñaherrera, said the information provided by the CNE has several errors because, among other reasons, the total number of voters is different. He also assured that the category of abstention should not exist.

“There can’t be many variations in the ballots because it is the total number (of voters) and it would put into question the entire election process,” said Peñaherrera.

Peñaherrera considers the CNE could say that abstentions might be related to absenteeism, however, he predicted that if so it would be a very high absenteeism, more than 40% of voters in the country, when the historical average is no more than 25%.

Gilmar Gutierrez thinks there are lots of irregularities.

Opposition candidates believe that inconsistencies are “evidence of irregularities” of the process and ask the CNE to open 10% of the national polls, at random, to verify the vote in each of the tables.

Meanwhile, the CNE, downplayed the criticism and said the percentage considered under the category of abstentions will decrease as it moves through the official count of the ballots.