Amid calls to suspend internal party elections, Colorado deputies Daniel Centurión (Añetete) and Alejandro Aguilera (Honor Colorado) spoke out against any postponement of the June 7 election. Both agree on conducting a new audit of the voting machines but condition the measure on a decision by the Electoral Justice.
Centurión, from the Colorado dissident faction, defended the credibility of the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE) and criticized the Independent Electoral Tribunal (TEI) of the ANR for allegedly failing to ensure the participation of all groups in the February audit. “We have won and lost elections, but we have always ended up congratulating the process led by the TSJE,” he said. For him, postponing the primaries “would mean disrupting the electoral process.”
Aguilera, from the cartist movement Honor Colorado, described the calls for suspension as an attempt to “disrupt the process” by those who consider themselves defeated. “The Paraguayan electoral process is transparent and an international example,” he declared, adding that no evidence of vulnerability in the electronic voting machines had been presented.
The two deputies also rejected the possibility of returning to the blanket ballot system, which would allow voting for specific candidates without using the machines. Centurión called the idea a “step backward,” while Aguilera stated that the electronic system was created to “destroy the Colorado Party” but ended up benefiting the party, which now holds a majority in Congress.
Congress President Basilio Bachi Núñez suggested the possibility of a runoff and presidential reelection, a proposal Aguilera said he was open to analyzing. The discussion on blanket ballots was raised at the Senate board meeting on Monday.
The ANR chief of staff, Eduardo González, attributed to the Colorado dissident faction the responsibility for requesting the suspension of the elections, but Senator Lilian Samaniego, from Causa Republicana, denies the accusation.