Page 68 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

B. Spurious Credentials

On Sunday, May 6, the front page on La Prensa reproduced a photocopy of
a blank but signed Electoral Tribunal document authorizing its bearer to vote at any
precinct. The document also certified that “the person named herein is registered with
the Electoral Registry”. UNADE supporters had an abundant supply of these forms,
obviously obtained through illegal means. They used them to inject into the electoral
process thousands of persons not registered to vote. These fraudulent credentials were
also used to allow thousands of people to vote outside their districts and thus help some
favorite sons of the regime. Copies of these forms were submitted to international
observers from Colombia and the United States, specifically to former Colombian
President Alfonso López Michelsen and former United States Ambassador to Panama,
William J. Jorden. It was to no avail. They said nothing about them. (See exhibit 17).
These credentials “circulated freely through the capital on the eve of the elections…
several copies were anonymously sent to La Prensa’s news desk; others found their
way, also anonymously, into the hands of several persons associated with opposition
25
parties”.
How many people availed themselves of these documents to vote twice or
more, depending on the number of copies they had in their possession? How many
votes did the UNADE rack up in this fashion?
Judging by the profuse number of spurious credentials in circulation, there
must have been thousands of them around. And the final margin of Barletta’s alleged
victory was barely 1,713 votes.

“… several telephone calls confirmed last night reports
26
to this newspaper that the San Miguelito district was
.
flooded with credentials”.27

Voting ballots for UNADE parties also circulated profusely. Circulation of
these ballots before the election was prohibited under the Electoral Code because it is
an essential requirement for effective vote buying. Nevertheless, circulate they did,
abundantly and with impunity.

The existence of spurious credentials and the circulation on voting ballots
prior to election day is one more proof of the partial position adopted by the Electoral
Tribunal and the National Guard. The former would not have existed without the
cooperation of willing accomplices within the Tribunal who pilfered them and turned
them over to the UNADE. And the latter, as was the case with ballot boxes and returns

25 La Prensa, May 6, 1984, page 1A.
26 Ibid