Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03GUATEMALA2413
2003-09-18 20:33:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Guatemala
Cable title:  

ANTI-FRAUD MEASURES FOR GUATEMALAN ELECTIONS

Tags:  PREL KDEM PINR GT 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 002413 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KDEM PINR GT
SUBJECT: ANTI-FRAUD MEASURES FOR GUATEMALAN ELECTIONS

REF: BOYNTON-HAMILTON EMAIL 9/10/03

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 002413

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL KDEM PINR GT
SUBJECT: ANTI-FRAUD MEASURES FOR GUATEMALAN ELECTIONS

REF: BOYNTON-HAMILTON EMAIL 9/10/03


1. Summary. This message provides information about
procedures to prevent electoral fraud in response to
questions raised at the September 4 Policy Coordinating
Committee meeting on Guatemala. We are encouraged by the
measures that electoral authorities and institutions are
taking to reduce possibilities for fraud, but will continue
to monitor this subject vigilantly through the November 9 and
December 28 elections. End Summary.

Q: With 100 mesas being added, especially in rural
areas/outside Guatemala City, have the international
observers taken that into account in their coverage of
election day?

A. Yes; the OAS election monitoring team is aware that there
will be extra voting tables and is working closely with the
Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) on coverage. The actual
number of additional tables remains to be determined (may be
more or less than 100),as the number will be based on the
final approved version of the voter registration list
("padron electoral"),which is still being verified.

Q: Security of the voting card; ability to manipulate or
reproduce them; how will voter ID's be validated?


A. The national identity document required to register to
vote, known as the "cedula," is a multi-page booklet, one of
whose pages is reserved for voter registration. When the
owner is registered, that page is stamped with a voter
registration number that is checked against the registry
maintained by the TSE.

Numerous municipalities are authorized to issue cedulas and
some have been credibly accused of selling cedulas to illegal
immigrants. The Consular section sees many of them in
connection with visa applicants. After careful review of the
situation, however, we are confident that sufficient
safeguards are in place for the following reasons:

-- The use of indelible ink effectively prevents voters from
voting more than once, as it penetrates the skin and takes
several days to wear off. False cedulas are therefore useful
only to people who would otherwise not be able to vote, such
as foreigners, members of the police and military, convicted
felons, or underage people. Police and military together
constitute only 50,000 possible votes--not enough to matter
at the national level even if every single one voted and then
was somehow able to hide the inky finger. Underage people
and foreigners would be easily detected if they tried to vote
in numbers large enough to affect the outcome.

-- As part of the registration validation process, the TSE
checks the registry against lists provided by the military,
police, judiciary, and municipalities, removing the names of
ineligible or deceased voters. Although the TSE is not able
to investigate every registration, it focuses on newly
registered voters, especially if the voter has not recently
come of age.

-- Anyone who intends to use a false cedula to vote needed to
have registered to vote before the August 9 deadline. Since
then, TSE officials have been verifying the rolls against the
civil registries of births (which are books, with
chronologically entered handwritten entries) maintained by
municipalities. In order to successfully register a
fraudulent cedula with the TSE, the cedula must match an
entry at least 18 years old in the civil registry of some
municipality. Additionally, the entry cannot belong to
someone who has already registered to vote or the TSE
computers will detect the match. OAS Observer Mission Chief
Valentin Paniagua and the TSE have independently concluded
that the growth of the voter registry is in line with
population growth. In other words, there was no explosion of
newly registered voters at the national level.

-- TSE officials have detected and investigated unusual
growth rates in voter rolls at the municipal level (such as
in Villa Nueva, a suburb of the Capital),but so far all the
investigations have unearthed reasonable explanations and no
signs of serious fraud.

Taken together, these safeguards significantly raise the
effort required to register to vote fraudulently and reduce
the likelihood that fraud can be perpetrated on a massive
scale.

Q: Validation and review of civic education efforts to assure
voters of the secrecy of their vote on election day?


A. A large-scale campaign of TV and radio spots in
indigenous languages as well as numerous full-page ads in all
the major newspapers is well underway. Additionally, the
largest newspaper in circulation, Nuestro Diario, has
launched its own get-out-the-vote campaign, also using full
page announcements and ads.

HAMILTON