Fact checking in plebiscite: Machi Linconao’s inability to vote, the complaints against Kast before Servel and the false complaint that Beatriz Sánchez skipped her voting line

During this day of voting for the plebiscite, the machi Francisca Linconao could not vote in the Padre Las Casas compound in which it is registered. The reason is not yet officially clarified by the Servel, but the truth is that on the entity’s page, when entering the Rut of the Mapuche community member, it appears that it is not authorized to vote in these elections.

Today the woman went to the Servel to make the corresponding claim, after which she stated that: “I came to vote, to vote, my right to vote, we are from the countryside, there is no vehicle, I had to pay a freight for my own money to come to pay, and later they tell me that I was unable to pay, they did not give me an explanation of why it was, the director of the school did not know either, they told me that I had to come to the Servel to find out what happened because I need to know, an explanation, why this happened, that I could not vote, there is no reason why I cannot vote ”.

Linconao was acquitted twice by the court after the prosecution accused her of the crime of arson resulting in death of a terrorist nature in the framework of the investigation into the crime of the Luchsinger Mackay couple that occurred on January 4, 2013. In That opportunity the Public Ministry requested a life imprisonment sentence after identifying her as one of the ideologues of the homicide. Twice she was acquitted in trials with different judges. What happened in this case?

In Chile, according to figures from the Servel, there are more than 93,000 people who cannot vote. One of the reasons is, precisely, to have been linked to an investigation in which a terrorist crime was raised. Disqualifications are related to citizens suspended in their right to vote on the grounds of article 16 of the Constitution, that is, “by interdiction in case of insanity, because the person is accused of a crime that deserves an afflictive penalty or a crime that law qualifies as terrorist conduct ”.

This last case would be the one that would be affecting the machi’s situation. Criminal lawyer Francisco Cox explains that “According to article 16 of the Constitution, the right to vote is suspended for being accused of a crime that deserves an afflictive penalty or a terrorist crime. What is contrary to the presumption of innocence especially when there is no judicial control of the accusation”.

So even though the machi is innocent before the courts, since she was never convicted of the terrorist crimes that were charged to her, when the Public Ministry “accused” her, that is, she took her to oral trial, her right to vote was suspended. The acquittal, then, would not have been notified to this body, which is why Linconao adds to the list of people unable to vote in Chile.

The National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) announced that it will report this situation to the Servel so that it can be corrected.

From the Servel they maintained that “The publication of the audited electoral roll allows each voter a social control of it, since it is possible to claim before a Regional Electoral Court (TER) to request the inclusion, correction or, in case of contravening the law, the exclusion of other voters. After that publication, each voter has 10 days for that claim, which is why in each election process Servel calls to review the electoral data”.

Controversy caused in social networks a call made this morning by the president of the Republican Party, José Antonio Kast, to vote for Rejection. The statements were made to the press after having gone to vote at the Colegio Sagrado Corazón de La Reina.

“Chile needs us all, our country requires the will, the courage of all, young people, adults, the elderly, who go to Chile to vote. Rejection”, Kast commented in the instance. Then, after a question from a journalist, he also added: “If the people stand up, the Rejection wins today. So we hope that everyone will vote Rejection. “

Faced with this, the RD deputy, Pablo Vidal, commented on his Twitter account that “the candidate of the Republican Party has just called to vote for r3ch4z0 from inside a polling station. We will report it ”.

Despite the fact that more than one user on Twitter claimed that the statement had been made within the polling station, the video that was broadcast by television channels was not so clear, since it shows how he leaves the school to make the point of press. After being consulted by Kast’s press team, he declined to comment.

But regardless of where he made the statement, the truth is that what is prohibited is to propagandize on a day like today, no matter where it happened. This is how Hugo Tórtora, a constitutional lawyer at the Andrés Bello University, warns: “There is a time limit in which propaganda can be made, and that limit operates regardless of where this propaganda is made.”

In that sense, Tórtora comments that the former presidential candidate “makes an explicit call to vote Rejection, which can be considered as propaganda and, therefore, is subject to the sanctions established by law.” The academic details that Law 18,700 would apply here on popular voting and ballots.

However, there is no absolute clarity on this point. The academic lawyer of the Catholic University, Felipe Bravo Alliende, commented on his Twitter account that “What José Antonio Kast does may be misplaced, but attention @ T13: transitory provision 42 n.5 of the Constitution says that the dissemination of ideas carried out by any means carried out by natural persons exercising freedom of expression is not propaganda ”.

Asked about this point, Tórtora says that if a candidate is asked what he thinks is the best option, and responds in his opinion, this would be considered as freedom of expression. But a different case would be for a person to make an explicit call to vote for an option. “This is closer to propaganda, but it is an issue that will have to be analyzed and resolved later,” he says.

After being asked about this interpretation, Bravo added: “I think it’s a debatable issue, really. It does not seem to me that the norm is so clear, and neither does it seem to me that the constitutional norm makes that distinction. The Constitution uses the phrase ´expression of ideas´. A valid discussion can be whether ´expression of ideas´ can mean, on the part of a natural person, calling to vote for an option. But to say bluntly that it is illegal behavior I think is not clear.

From the Servel they added that for this fact they have “received a high number of complaints, which should be analyzed by virtue of the existing antecedents, to assess whether there is a violation of propaganda norms or the statement is part of the use of people’s freedom of expression”.

Several Twitter users released a video that shows the former presidential candidate of the Frente Amplio, Beatriz Sánchez, allegedly skipping the voting line at her local, the Liceo José Toribio Medina, in Ñuñoa, to go directly to her voting table.

“Beatriz Sánchez skips the line at Plebiscito 2020. Is everything normal?” Wrote the user who shared the video, in which some people are heard complaining against Sánchez for not standing in line. The record was also released by former candidate José Antonio Kast.

However, according to Sánchez herself, this is incorrect, as a facilitator from the Electoral Service would have asked her to go to her table, as it was empty. “I stood in line for half an hour until the manager of the premises asked the people who voted at tables 32 to 36 to make another line, because the tables were empty”Explained Sánchez.

This situation occurred in other locations. For example, at the Abdon Cifuentes High School in Santiago, a facilitator walked the long line looking for voters at table 125, since it was empty at the time.

For the plebiscite, The Servel provided 15 thousand facilitators, whose main function is to verify that voters comply with the preventive measures of the coronavirus, such as wearing masks, giving them alcohol gel with a spray bottle and helping to maintain order.

On Twitter, Jorge Schaulsohn, former deputy, president of the lower house and president of the Party for Democracy, assured in his account that for today’s civic day, Chile has the lowest level of contagion, positivity and hospitalizations since the pandemic began, adding that in addition, at this moment, the country registers the highest number of distrustful population.

The official figures of the pandemic show that as of October 25, the total positivity is 12.2%. Although it is the lowest figure since the peak of contagion in Chile (June 25, 25.3%), it is not effectively the lowest level, since at the beginning, at the end of March, the numbers indicated 7.0%, when the virus was just beginning in the country. Regarding those hospitalized, there are currently 2,706 people in this situation. Previously there were fewer hospitalized, for example throughout the month of March, April and mid-May there were less than 2,700 people hospitalized. As for infections. current figures show that the number of active cases is the lowest since April.

In relation to this information, the Ministry of Health confirms it in its latest epidemiological report. The Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, reported that according to today’s COVID-19 report, “nine regions decrease their new cases in the last 7 days and 12 in the last 14, while the variation in cases, in the last 14 days, it remains at -12% ”, he points out.