The National Electoral Chamber (CNE) summoned the judge this Thursday Maria Romilda Servini to deal with the situation arising from the thousands of layoffs and voluntary retirements that occurred at Correo Argentino. As is known, the Post Office is key in electoral operations, to the point that 16,000 vehicles from that state company are used, a huge team that has experience in the entire operation and a large part of the staff participates. “If the elections were held today, they could not be held, because The Mail is 70 percent of the process and all the historical people left,” the electoral judges evaluate. The issue was revealed exclusively by Page 12 on Sunday and Governor Axel Kicillof issued a public warning on Monday: “next year’s elections are not guaranteed.” The electoral judge of the Province of Buenos Aires also raised his concern, Alejo Ramos Padilla. At dusk this Thursday, the Argentine Postal Service issued an official statement stating that “there are absolute guarantees that the tasks that correspond to future electoral acts will be fulfilled,” but the truth is that the situation raises enormous doubts.
The judges Alberto Dalla Via, Santiago Corcuera and Daniel Bejasmembers of the Chamber, exchanged opinions with Servini, who is the electoral judge, and after the meeting they published a statement with two specific resolutions:
*”The Postal Electoral Services Directorate was required to report on the impact of the restructuring on the organization of the logistics of the electoral processes.”
*”The Management Commission of the national electoral justice was convened, made up of judges and secretaries from across the country to share impressions about the situation in the respective jurisdictions.”
The Post Office had about 16,000 employees. Between layoffs and voluntary retirements there are already 5,000, but it is said that the cut will affect 7,000, leaving only one plant of 9,000. The Post Office denies these figures, saying that it currently has 13,600 employees, but it is curious that it mentions that figure because recently the government was proud that layoffs and retirements totaled 5,000. What’s more, the closure of offices was public because not a single employee remained. According to the versions collected by this newspaper, all senior officials with experience in electoral matters were left out of the Post Office, which puts the ability to organize elections at risk.
The Post Office takes the 110,000 ballot boxes to the 17,000 voting locations, some in remote places that can only be reached by mules or boats. Not only do you have to bring the ballot boxes, but also the ballots for each of the parties, the forms and all the material that is needed. Last year, even screens were used to enable different votes in the same dark room. The Post Office is also the one who organizes the telegrams in which the results are posted and then processed on the night of the elections. Finally, he does the entire operation of removing the ballot boxes and taking them to the places where the final count is carried out. All of this, carried out efficiently since 1983, is what justifies the Post Office taking 70 percent of the budget for each election.
There is an additional detail: the law specifically establishes that it is the Official Post Office, that is, the flagship company, that must carry out all operations. The law does not provide for a privatization process of the process, only of some parts – the data processing software, for example – which is contracted by the Post Office.
The statement issued by the Post Office on Thursday afternoon indicates that “the Post Office has 13,600 employees and the holding of the elections involves 76,000 people. The Post Office hires temporary staff.” In other words, what it suggests is that those former employees who left, where the key are the technicians, could be hired for the elections. Obviously, it is a hypothesis without possibility of verification.
There is another ingredient that election judges across the country mention. Not only do they see that the hierarchical officials who know the electoral process have left, but that many Post Office offices are closing, which also raises logistical issues such as where the ballot boxes will be left. The feeling is that it only matters to reduce the budget, without any planning: there is no evaluation of who is leaving and how it impacts the future. In this framework, the reality is that the Post Office is in deficit, but it has only one surplus activity: elections. Reducing without rhyme or reason, as happens throughout Javier Milei’s management, is not only handled in a dehumanized manner, but also inefficient.
The concern regarding electoral justice is also based on another fact of reality: Javier Milei’s government is not complying with the budget and is possibly going to make cuts that will prevent the operation. An example is that Funds have not yet been released to pay the expenses of last year’s Milei-Sergio Massa debate.
