Giving away the source code is like handing over the key to the Bank of the Republic's vault: National Registrar Hernán Penagos
National Registrar Hernán Penagos faces the difficult task of ensuring electoral transparency in an environment where President Gustavo Petro casts doubt on the country's electoral system, despite having been elected with it throughout his political career. In an interview with EL COLOMBIANO, he discusses issues such as the source code, which the Head of State demands, pressure from armed groups, and his confidence in institutions.
TL;DR
- The Registrar's office is well-prepared operationally for elections, citing the efficiency of past congressional elections.
- International audits, published election tallies, a high-accuracy pre-count, international observation, and biometric identification ensured the integrity of past elections.
- The source code, a set of programming instructions for electoral software, is available for verification within controlled environments for party auditors, but not for external possession to prevent manipulation.
- The Registrar's office has been subject to over thirty million cyberattack attempts and sophisticated disinformation campaigns.
- Electoral transparency is guaranteed through the manual counting of votes, the publication of all vote tallies (E14 forms), and the ability for citizens, party witnesses, and authorities to photograph these forms.
- The Registrar's office collaborates with the Ministry of Defense to ensure security in high-risk areas, emphasizing that military action is needed to combat armed group coercion.
- The secrecy of the vote is absolute within the voting booth, and citizens are encouraged to report any coercion.
- Elections for the Eastern Metropolitan Area in Antioquia have been convened after resolving budgetary issues and are proceeding as scheduled.