The cut in the sectional reaches up to the diplomas

Ecuadornews:

The scissors reaches even the smallest details. The National Electoral Council in charge wants to achieve what has not been possible in the last four years: place the budget of the electoral processes below $ 100 million.

The projection is that for the sectional elections in March, the spending does not exceed $ 99.3 million. This amount must be approved by the full National Electoral Council this week or, at the latest, at the beginning of the next one.

With this, the budget of the electoral contest would undergo two modifications in five months. In March, the dismissed National Electoral Council assessed the process at $ 141 million. But criticism from the then counselor Marcela Paredes caused the initial budget to be reduced to $ 119.7 million.

Where do the cuts go? In the initial proposal, it was considered to increase the satellite transmission points for areas of difficult access. For these sectionals the lines were going to go from 1,800 to almost 4,700, which increased the value by $ 4 or $ 5 million.

Councilor Camila Moreno said that this innovation could mean having faster data, “but perhaps as a country we can wait two more days to have 100% of the results, in exchange for reducing the budget and taking into account that we are in austerity. This does not mean that we are going to have less exact results, “she told EXPRESO.

On this occasion, a telephone application that aims to solve the problems that could arise in the electoral precincts will not start functioning. The development of this technology had a cost of $ 1.4 million. Instead, it seeks to establish agreements with international organizations that handle these technologies with open codes and apply them in the sectionals.

Other expenses that will be eliminated, although they are not counted in millions of dollars, are, for example, the delivery of the appointments of the elected authorities. Before it was done in leather folders that added $ 40,000 and now cardboard folders will be used. Nor will the diploma be given for young people who vote for the first time and it meant an expense of $ 27,000.

Moreno told this newspaper that not all of them have been reductions and that in areas such as information security the items have increased.

For the ex-president of the extinct Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Carlos Aguinaga, placing between the $ 80 and $ 100 million an electoral process at present is coherent and believes that it could save even more in personnel.

“What cannot be sacrificed is transparency, that is to say that the route of the vote from the moment the citizen pays until the results are given can be revised, that is worth more than any budget or technological invention”, said the former official consulted by this Daily.

Last day to apply to the National Electoral Council

The deadline for social and political organizations to register their candidates for the final National Electoral Council concludes this afternoon.

According to a report from the Council of Transitional Citizen Participation, until yesterday afternoon four applicants had delivered the complete documentation and there were 200 pre-registrants who had to complete the process.

The CREO movement announced that today in Guayaquil it will formalize the candidacy of Enrique Pita, who was president of the Electoral Tribunal of Guayas. (I)

Source: https://www.expreso.ec/actualidad/cne-eleccionesseccionales-presupuesto-ecuador-GY2346923