Buenos Aires elections: Justice authorizes releasing results before 9 PM

The Electoral Court of the City of Buenos Aires authorized the early release of the provisional results of next Sunday's legislative elections. This is a key modification that will allow the new winner of Buenos Aires to be known before 9 PM, the time traditionally set for the publication of the data.

This time, the court decided that the results can be released once 25% of the total tables and 33% of the tables from each of the 15 communes have been counted. This change was adopted by judges Roberto Carlos Requejo, Romina Tesone, and Rodolfo Ariza Clerici, after reaching a consensus with the major political forces.

A new criterion based on technology

The measure responds to the speed allowed by the Single Electronic Ballot (BUE) system, which will be used again in the Buenos Aires elections. According to official estimates, the count could be completed shortly after 7 PM, thanks to the efficiency of the digital system.

"The recent experience in other jurisdictions, such as Salta, showed that the electronic count can be completed in less than an hour," recalled the Electoral Management Institute (IGE), responsible for the count. In that province, with a similar system, 97.5% of the votes were processed in less than 90 minutes.

What the regulations establish and how they were modified

Originally, Article 233 of the CABA Electoral Code required waiting three hours from the close of the polls to release preliminary data. The new judicial agreement relaxes this requirement under certain conditions, as long as territorial representativeness and transparency are guaranteed.

"The implementation of the BUE speeds up the timelines, but also requires regulatory adjustments to avoid legal contradictions", explains the resolution. In fact, the change was enabled with the support of the main parties and in order to "not empty the current legislation of meaning," given the current technological context.

Guarantees of legality

The Electoral Court emphasized that the decision seeks to preserve both transparency and fairness in the electoral process. The ruling was digitally recorded and formally communicated to the IGE, which will be responsible for releasing the results on its official site once the stipulated conditions are met.

"Surely, the count will be completed before 7 PM. Not much beyond that time should it be known who the winner is", sources with access to the electoral operation told Infobae.

More than 3 million voters are eligible

In these elections, 30 seats in the Buenos Aires Legislature will be decided, in a contest that will pit La Libertad Avanza, PRO, and Unión por la Patria against each other. According to the register, 3,040,316 citizens are eligible to vote, including more than half a million foreigners.

There will be 8,600 tables distributed in 1,100 establishments, such as schools and clubs. The implementation of modern technologies and the experience accumulated in previous elections allow for anticipation that the process will be agile and that the first results will be known quickly, in line with citizens' expectations.