By Community Press in collaboration with Peninsula 360 Press and Global Exchange.
The citizens of that municipality have not been able to exercise their vote, after 130 members of the Vote Receiving Board resigned from their posts.
Voting in the municipality of San José del Golfo was suspended after a series of incidents occurred since Saturday night. The Departmental Electoral Board (JED) of Guatemala indicated that a group of people forced them to get off the buses in which they were transporting to a training session.
After they got off the buses, the members in charge of delivering and receiving the ballots were doused with gasoline with the threat of setting them on fire.
The facts have already been reported to the National Civil Police ?PNC?. However, due to the lack of the Vote Receiving Boards "JRV", the four voting centers installed in that municipality did not open their doors so that citizens could elect their authorities.
The Departmental Electoral Board of Guatemala and the Municipal Electoral Board ?JEM? of San José del Golfo indicated that they are "working with all the legal and security mechanisms at their disposal to continue with a legitimate, orderly and efficient process."
They also reported that, with the support of the PNC, they coordinated the transfer of electoral equipment to the Nito Palencia Institute of Basics, so that it could operate as a voting center in that town.
They try to dialogue
However, upon arriving at the place, a group of residents closed the entrance to said compound. According to the electoral bodies, they are in dialogue with the protesters so that those registered in the municipality can cast their votes "safely."
In fact, on the outskirts of the aforementioned educational center, riot police officers threw tear gas canisters at the protesters. Members of the Guatemalan Army even showed up at the scene.
Police have already arrested at least one person for the incidents. Separately, residents of San José del Golfo denounced that people who are not from the municipality arrived in the town and indicated that they were "carried away."
Read the note in its original version giving click here.
You may be interested in: General elections begin in Guatemala
