Judge María Servini warns the Government that if they do not vaccinate their staff, they will not supervise the elections

Bernardo Vazquez

02/12/2021 9:18 AM

• Clarín.com

• Politics

Updated 02/12/2021 9:18 AM

On Wednesday, during the videoconference meeting held by electoral Justice authorities, a voice raised the tone and stated firmly: "If you don't vaccinate the staff, I won't make the choice."

The data, to which

Clarín

had access

through judicial sources, was confirmed to this medium by the author of that sentence,

federal judge María Romilda Servini

, with electoral jurisdiction in the City of Buenos Aires, a list of 2.5 million of voters that represent almost 8% of the entire national electoral universe.

The judge confirmed that in the early hours of Thursday she

will send an official letter to the Ministry of the Interior

in which she will request that within the vaccination schedule the personnel who have to participate in the organization of the elections be considered as a priority.

"There are at least

20 essential employees of

my court who have to start working with the transfer of ballot boxes from March, at the most April, and who must be vaccinated," Servini told

Clarín

.

300 people work in his dependency who are part of the assembly of the election in Buenos Aires, but 20, or 40 at some point of the year, are those who work outside desks.

"

If there was only one infected among those 20, we have to isolate everyone and the election would be put at risk

. Not only here, but in all the provinces with the personnel who are in charge of that work. In the province of Buenos Aires, for being a larger register, logically there will be many more, "said the judge.

The judge made that statement in the middle of a talk between the judicial authorities in charge of organizing the election, a meeting that took place yesterday and after which the National Electoral Chamber issued a strict protocol to prevent the spread of Covid-19 among its employees. 

Electoral Justice sources assure that the disposition to carry out the elections is total and that they are not at risk.

However,

there is some alarm among those who carry out the assembly of the elections because they have not had responses from the Ministry of Health

regarding how the vaccination process will be for the personnel who consider essential to carry out both legislative elections, on August 8 , the PASO, and on October 24, the general ones.

The situation of tension occurs in times in which the Government assures that the elections are going to be held, but in which, at the same time, from different provinces and even at the national level, the

possibility of the STEP being suspended or delayed

.

The opposition was also divided, although the small table of Juntos por el Cambio, with Horacio Rodríguez Larreta as the main reference, is against suspending the elections and promotes a special protocol for their conduct.

The electoral cost for all of 2021, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior, exceeds $ 17,000 million, but according to the extra expenses involved in the pandemic, it is estimated that they will amount to more than $ 20,000 million for the organization of both elections.

"It would be a piece of paper if there are no elections, all countries are doing them the same, with the corresponding care for the pandemic situation. But

they cannot be suspended," says a source

who participates in the diagramming of the schedule and defends Servini's claim to go out to vaccinate essential personnel.

Without a clear political definition, and awaiting the government's decision, the judge issued a clear warning: vaccine for all or a measure of force.

​