Santiago judge quits after Electoral Board fires colleague

SANTIAGO.- Santiago Electoral Board judge Nicolas Cantizano Thursday morning announced he’ll step down from the bench in solidarity with judge Franklin Rosa, fired by Central Electoral Board (JCE) last weekend.

Cantizano said though no one is irreplaceable, he doesn’t understand why the change of judges if it has been show that Santiago’s Board meets the conditions to continuing what he views as a good job. “Because who would resort to this. Is it because of political pressure, economic pressure? I don’t know."

He said during the last electoral process Rosa looked for and found several polling places which didn’t figure in the vote count, and in a certain manner could’ve changed the election’s final results.

Santiago Electoral the Board president Haime Tomas Frias confirmed that the JCE decided to dismiss Rosa and replaced him with Alberto Hernandez, calling the move “routine” within the composition process of the country’s 44 electoral boards.