Paraguayan opposition calls for manual vote count and international audit in view of allegations of electoral fraud

The former opposition candidate to the Presidency of Paraguay for the Concertación Nacional, Efraín Alegre, made a statement in the last hours of this Monday, given the denunciations made about possible electoral fraud in the general elections held the day before in his country.

The politician, president of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), demanded through a communiqué to the Superior Court of Electoral Justice (TSJE) that a manual count of 10 percent of the randomly chosen tables in each polling station throughout the country be carried out immediately.

In addition, it requested that an independent international audit of the software of the computer system (electronic machines) used for the elections be contracted as a matter of the utmost urgency.

“We remain vigilant and mobilized. The validity and legitimacy of the proclamation of the results depend on adopting these measures to ensure that they faithfully reflect the will of the people”, he expressed through his official Twitter account.

It should be recalled that Efraín Alegre acknowledged his electoral defeat on Sunday in a brief press conference in front of his residence in the city of Lambaré, Central Department, after the Electoral Justice had announced the official results.

This Monday, the National Crusade Party denounced an alleged fraud during the general elections by finding differences between the official vote count and a parallel count carried out internally.

Cruzada Nacional, nominated for president of Paraguayo Cubas Colomés, was the third most voted candidate (23 percent) in the elections won by the official candidate Santiago Peña (42.74 percent).