PDP: Voter registration ills are part of election manipulation by NPP

Popular Democratic Party Electoral Commissioner Karla Angleró González

By The Star Staff

Popular Democratic Party (PDP) Electoral Commissioner Karla Angleró González charged Sunday that the long lines that voters are facing at the State Elections Commission (SEC) are solely the fault of the New Progressive Party (NPP) for eliminating the Permanent Registration Boards (JIP by the initials in Spanish) under the Electoral Code that it approved in the last four years.

“The NPP has designed an intentionally ineffective system to discourage youth participation in the electoral process,” Angleró said in a press release. “The elimination of the JIPs, which was included in the Electoral Code Law under [the current NPP executive branch] administration, has been a direct attack on the accessibility of the vote. Added to this is the elimination of high school enrollment visits, which has had consequences for our youth. They let the graduating classes of 2021 and 2022 pass without even registering them to vote, and when they finally started visiting schools, they did it with inexplicable slowness.”

The PDP official said that as of March of this year there were more than 120 public schools that had not been visited by the SEC to enroll students since the start of the current four-year governmental term.

“We do not know how many schools were not visited before the students graduated” in May, Angleró said. “It is unacceptable that a government under the NPP and an SEC chairperson in its service allow young people to be left without the opportunity to register.”

She stressed that it is a matter of principles and rights.

“It is about ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to vote,” Angleró said. “To those who say that it is not known how these young people will vote, I answer that that is not the point.”

“It is a basic duty to ensure that everyone can exercise their right to vote,” she added. “These young people must vote, and they will do so more for those who fight to protect their right than for those who hinder it.”

With only one week to go before the Voter Registry closes on Saturday, Sept. 21 and with the period for requesting early voting expiring today, prospective voters are finding a system that is not agile and lacks the resources needed to meet demand, Angleró said.

She called on citizens, especially young people, not to be discouraged by the long lines and considerable delays in the registration process.

“This is a crucial moment for our democracy,” Angleró said. “We cannot allow this to happen without the support of the people who are waiting for us to vote. The NPP continues to play with our right to vote. It is time to denounce these actions so that they do not go unpunished. We must insist that every young person, every citizen, has the opportunity to exercise their right to vote in the next elections.”

Despite the criticism that the process has received, interim SEC Chairwoman Jessika Padilla Rivera asked voters on Friday to trust it.

“The invitation that I always have to make to voters and all citizens is to trust in the electoral process, which sounds like a cliché,” Padilla Rivera said at a press conference. “We definitely have to say that with all the shadows that have fallen lately on the State Elections Commission, I cannot [expect] that they [voters would] not have doubt, but … we are working with that.”

She said she is providing the necessary leadership “and I can attest that each one of the electoral commissioners are committed to all the processes, the area directors, the registration officers, each and every one of the employees of the State Elections Commission are serious employees who do their job as it should be done; everything that is contrary to that or everything that has remained out of reach, we will be working on and addressing it.”

“Unfortunately, definitely, amid all this fallout, what is expected is a storm,” she added. “I cannot say anything other than that the evidence that we are faithfully complying with the electoral calendar is that the JAVAA [Spanish initials for Administrative Board for Absentee and Early Voting] ballots arrived, that we are on time; however, it is documented that there are complaints, that there are delays. … We always project chaos; unfortunately, we do not project the positive.”