(CNN Spanish) - The Catholic Church of Bolivia asked the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) this Wednesday to strengthen its integrity so that the elections on October 18 are "free and transparent."
The president of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Ricardo Centellas, said that “we all want to participate in the next elections, but there are no guarantees of a transparent election with the current electoral roll and even less with the silence of justice in relation to the October fraud. past. Let's regain institutional credibility ”, he assured during a virtual assembly of bishops.
Hours later, the Conference published a letter sent to the President of the Tribunal, Salvador Romero, with which it seeks to "clarify" the words of Monsignor Centellas.
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In the note, the Church explains that the religious's message "is in a context that goes beyond the issue of the electoral roll and that demands the need to strengthen the entire electoral process."
He adds that "our concern is focused on strengthening the credibility of this State body to achieve free and transparent elections" and that the Conference was aware of the "significant progress in cleaning up the electoral roll."
Neither the Court nor its head, Salvador Romero, have publicly ruled on Centellas' statements, but the institution published a statement this Wednesday in which it reports that "it has systematically worked on the evaluation and reorganization of the biometric electoral roll with a view to to the 2020 general elections ».
In November 2019, the then president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, resigned from his post amid a controversy, after an international audit by the Organization of American States (OAS) suggested that the results of the October 20 elections did not they could be ratified due to “serious irregularities”.
The OAS assured that the alleged offenses, which include errors in the chain of custody of the ballots, alteration and falsification of electoral material, redirection of data to unauthorized servers and manipulation of data, impacted the official vote count.
This year, the holding of the general elections has generated tensions between the interim government and opposition groups, who even resorted to protests and roadblocks in recent weeks to demand the holding of the elections, which were supposed to take place in May and were postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Supreme Electoral Tribunal
