“Last year we had to pre-select and vote again, but the struggle to elect these candidates with a two-thirds vote became so noticeable that to this day, a year later, we have an assembly that does not elect them, and this is a real crisis. A democratic state is emerging because this process has called into question the validity of some rights, in Bolivia a partisan political struggle for the judiciary has formed,” he added.

In addition, he explained that the magistrates currently in power have announced an indefinite self-extension until elections are held to elect other representatives, but Rodriguez believes that difficult conditions exist for this to happen.

“These party difficulties meant that the pre-selection process was postponed or postponed indefinitely until today, The reasons can be attributed to party-political interests related to judicial decisions regarding the re-election of the president, regarding the questioning of government leadership over judicial decisions, which limited the processes of checks and balances in the assembly itself, which limited inquiries. a number of trials with very noticeable political overtones,” he said.

In addition, he explained that there is a clear interest of the government faction in retaining these judges in their positions.

“My point of view is of great concern because it is a public authority, no more and no less than the judiciary, which – for partisan political reasons – has ceased to function in accordance with the Constitution and does not allow the existence of an effective judicial system. the service is available and this is in question, especially due to its lack of independence,” he said.

Rodriguez explained that citizens who disagreed with this methodology and more than two-thirds of voters did so by indifference or by canceling their vote because They don’t know the candidates.

He clarified that during the first vote, held in 2011, 59 percent votes was zero, and in the second, held in 2017, it increased to about 64 and 65 percent.

“People have realized that they are electing politically committed candidates, so there are many reasons to recommend that the election of judges or magistrates be done through, rather than by popular vote, potentially legislative nominations based on a meritocracy with the best candidates. possible party participation“

He further clarified that there is a provision in the Constitution that says they cannot campaign to promote their elections. Thus, this situation led to the election body – the Supreme Electoral Tribunal – being the one to make its data public at the earliest opportunity.

“We are talking about dozens of candidates for 26 positions. I may remember that there were over 100 qualified candidates that citizens had to choose from, and obviously reading and knowing that many candidates became a very impractical task, if not impossible, I believe that part The reaction of citizens was to some extent caused by this protest.“he added.

“That is, why should I choose if I did not have the opportunity to hear it or have access to the strengths or weaknesses that this person may have had, so that the act of voting that the citizen faced was complex,” He faced the ballot almost half a sheet in size, and he had to look for candidates he had never seen,” he added.

For this reason, the former President of Bolivia argued that It has been proven in this country that this was a bad decision. election by popular vote of the judges and magistrates constituting the principal courts, taking into account the inability and difficulty of the citizens to know the candidates.

“I would reject the possibility that a popular vote based on what we have commented on, due to the inability or difficulty of the citizen to know several candidates and lack of professional ability to judge them, would improve the result, I believe that I have always been inclined to reject this option , I did this while the constituent assembly was discussing this possibility, and over time Bolivia confirmed that It was a bad decision perhaps this will be discussed again to reverse the situation,” he added.

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