Argentina’s National Federal Election Board for the province of Buenos Aires has undercut charges by the mentally-unstable presidential candidate Javier Milei that “colossal fraud” is sure to occur during the Nov. 19 runoff election which pits Milei against Sergio Massa of the Unity for the Fatherland (UxP) coalition. For the last weeks, Milei’s Freedom Advances (LLA) party has been predicting that fraud will occur because ballots for LLA will be “stolen” or will be in short supply at polling places, which may require halting the voting so the “fraud” can be investigated. Contributing to the charge that there won’t be enough ballots, the LLA failed to deliver the requisite number of ballots to polling places in the city and the province, for unexplained reasons.
Yesterday, three magistrates from the National Federal Election Board for the province of Buenos Aires issued a legal order stating that “under no circumstances” will voting be interrupted on Nov. 19, should there be a shortage of ballots at polling places. The three warned that distribution of the correct number of ballots to each polling place, and having designated poll watchers at each site with an extra supply of ballots should they be needed, is solely the responsibility of each party. Any party that fails to abide by these requirements will have only itself to blame. The federal government pays for printing the ballots and delivers the correct number to each party.
Otherwise, a federal judge has dismissed flimsy complaints by LLA’s legal representatives that fraud had occurred in the Oct. 22 elections and would probably occur on Nov. 19 as well. The LLA provided no evidence of the fraud charge, and its representatives had to explain they weren’t actually charging fraud, but just had presented claims made on social media and in newspaper articles.
