Robert Baradel He is the general secretary of the Unified Union of Education Workers of Buenos Aires (Suteba), the largest teachers’ union in the province. Took command 17 years agowhen he replaced Hugo Yasky, referent of the CTA. Next week Baradel will have to revalidate his power at the polls and will compete for the leadership of the teachers’ union with the national deputy of the Frente Izquierda Unidad Romina Del Pla and with the union secretary of the La Matanza branch, Marta Gómez.
Today, when there are eight days left before the elections, Del Plá denounced fraudulent maneuvers by the Electoral Board to favor Baradel. “The provisional register has not yet been delivered in almost all the districts. In addition, we detected that people who do not have a teaching position or are affiliated with the union are active figures to vote. We detected 200 cases, but there must be many more,” Del Plá told THE NATION.
Near Baradel they relativized the complaints and said that it is the Electoral Board that will respond to the accusations. The central electoral board is elected by assembly and is dominated by leaders of the Celeste list, which responds to the ruling party. “The registers have been exposed since March 4. We can ensure that teachers in a dependency relationship, teachers from the private sector who make their union contribution to the union, and retirees will vote. There are no irregularities and the proposals made have already been answered, ”she told THE NATION Leonardo Leiva, president of the Electoral Board of Suteba and director of the primary school No. 20 of San Fernández. Leiva specified that there are 2,107 voting tables and that in each of them there will be a prosecutor, in addition to the inspectors that the Ministry of Labor will send. “It is impossible for there to be fraud,” he assured.
Baradel, meanwhile, questioned his opponents. “They lie and make false accusations. The Electoral Board is elected democratically by assemblies of affiliates and by congress. In La sectional Matanza, which leads Romina del Plá’s list, they lost the assembly and later split. They are very concerned regarding the internal divisions they have had and the low or relative weight they have had in provincial teaching, even in districts where they lead”, said the head of Suteba. And he added: “Wanting to dirty an absolutely democratic and transparent election, as it has always been in Suteba and Ctera, is a maneuver that tries to hide its own inability, weakness and limitations.”
Del Plá’s complaints are at the provincial level, but above all they focus on La Matanza, the sectional that he has been leading for nine years and that became the most opposition bastion to Baradel. In the registers there are 9,300 affiliates out of a total register of 84,497.
Determined to take the dispute to the Justice and the Ministry of Labor, Del Plá gave a press conference today to expose the alleged irregularities. In addition, she presented the presentations made before the Electoral Board gathered in file No. 2022-39284838-DGDM1 by the representatives of the Multicolor List before the Ministry of Labor. In a statement, the leader of the Left Front listed her claims: