Vote receiving boards were made up of poorly trained members in these 2023 elections in Ecuador

Several members of the polling stations (MJRV) did not receive the training provided by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on the electoral process and its scrutiny. This was verified by a team from EL UNIVERSO that toured various venues in District 1 (Ximena and Febres-Cordero parishes), in Guayaquil.

At the Agrarian University, one of the largest electoral precincts in the south of the city, the opening of the polling stations was delayed due to the absence of the MJRV and the confusion that several of them presented when they did not know how to assemble the electoral kit or to who to ask

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In fact, the military personnel who were in charge of handing out the electoral kits did not deliver the material to several of the MJRVs who did not come with the table coordinator appointed by the CNE. This process was something that was explained in the training.

In other meetings there were members who had been trained and they were the ones who helped those who did not know about the process. For example, Rubén Zambrano did attend the training and said that his table only had four members. Of them, there was one who had no idea of ​​the electoral process and they had to advise him.

“I didn’t even know there was a fine for not having gone to training. There we told him what he had to do; he’s not something from another world either, and then he’s going to pick up the pace,” she noted.

In addition, in this electoral precinct, the CNE personnel were looking for “substitutes” to integrate the polling stations. The access to the suffragettes was made at 07:30, but because it was raining. Voters had to wait on the ground floor for the boards to be completed on the first floor. This formed huge ranks of voters. Although the installation of meetings returned to normal around 10:00 a.m., the lines continued to be long and there were complaints from citizens about how slow they were advancing.

At the República de Venezuela school, the picture was similar. Several boards were integrated with only four members and there were also MJRV that were not trained. Stuart González was appointed as table president and affirmed that there were members with little information about the process. In addition, he showed his concern about the scrutiny, since being less would extend for more hours.

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“We hope to leave at 9:00 p.m., leaving everything behind. We do start at 7:00 a.m. and quite a few people have come to vote at our table (until 11:00 a.m.). What one did not know we have complemented. We also have the training brochure on hand,” she said.

Something similar happened at the Salesian Polytechnic University. Several MJRV had not received training and some did not know that they would be fined $45 for not going to these talks: “I did not know there was a penalty. Because of work I did not do it and I came directly to the table. It is not a very technical job, so I thought it was just to come and that’s it, “said a MJRV who did not want to say her name.

Until January 11, according to the CNE, 90,000 MJRV had been trained, but there were a total of 279,244. The electoral body hoped to reach 100% until February 5, but it was not achieved, according to EL UNIVERSO.

MJRVs will receive a payment of $40 and are expected to spend up to 16 hours at the polling place between the voting process and the counting of votes. Those who were selected as members and did not integrate the board receiving the vote will have a fine of 15% of the basic salary: $67.50. And for not voting it is 10%, that is, $45. (YO)