Dead people can no longer vote in Colombia, the country’s registrar said Thursday, claiming his office has removed 6 million deceased Colombians who in spite of their death still had the right to vote.
Following mysterious voting by dead people in the 2006 elections, Registrar General Carlos Ariel Sanchez has been asking since 2008 for funding to clean up the country’s registers.
MORE: Registrar warns the dead can vote in Colombia’s elections
Now, five years later, Sanchez told press for the second time that his office had successfully purged the electoral registries. The first time was ahead of the 2011 local elections.
MORE: Colombian electoral register purged of deceased voters
In early 2011, the registry removed the names of 800,000 deceased people to help create more transparency in the voting process for local elections held in October that year. In August, the Electoral Census of the Registry removed two mayoral candidates who registered for the October elections using the signatures of prisoners, dead people, and thousands of non-existent voters.
Colombia will take to the polls again in March 2014 for congressional elections. Presidential elections are set to be held later that year.
Sources
- En Colombia los muertos ya no votan: Registrador (El Espectador)
