The courts postponed the UTA elections until December due to "impediments, anomalies and deficits" in the electoral process

Roberto Fernández (Luciano González) Chamber I of the National Labor Appeals Court ordered the suspension of the elections to renew the leadership of the Unión Tranviarios Automotor (UTA), scheduled for October 7 and 8, and ruled that they be rescheduled for December 17 and 18 due to the “impediments, anomalies and deficits” detected in the electoral process. The ruling, signed by judges Gabriela Vázquez and Enrique Catani, also appointed a judicial observer to oversee the entire electoral process. The court detected serious irregularities in the electoral roll, in the location of the polling stations, and in the exclusion of one of the participating groups from 6 branch offices. Faced with this situation, the judges concluded that holding the elections under current conditions would not be a real election but rather —in their own words— “a mere mockery of the democratic exercise.” Maximiliano Escriba, candidate for UTA secretary general on the Black List The UTA is the union that groups together long-distance and passenger road transport bus drivers as well as subway personnel, and it is led by Roberto Fernández, 82 years old, who will compete for reelection to the post he has held since 2008. In these elections, unprecedentedly, Fernández will face 3 opposition candidates: Alberto Patiño, the union’s current Organization Secretary, running at the head of the Brown List; Maximiliano Escriba, candidate of the Black List, sponsored by Miguel Angel Bustinduy, a former opponent of the UTA chief; and Claudio Gómez, who leads the Burgundy List, backed by the Trotskyist Rubén “Pollo” Sobrero. After the electoral suspension, Fernández issued a statement in which he asserts: “Once again, as happened in 2022, we find stones in the path from those who call themselves comrades but pursue other interests alien to those of the UTA because they do not want the vote to take place and they take union politics to the courts.” Alberto Patiño and Sergio Barboza lead one of the lists that will compete in the UTA “We are respectful of judicial rulings, even if we do not share them, and as serious leaders we are not going to waste energy complaining about the obstacle, since it is there,” he added. “This delay calls on us to redouble our efforts so that in December we fill the ballot boxes with votes, so that UTA members choose their destiny, and so we can tell enough to those who take union politics to the courts, with business support and membership in another union.” The conflict began after the Black List filed a judicial complaint over irregularities in the electoral roll and in the procedure for officializing its candidates. The core of the Labor Appeals Court’s decision lies in a series of irregularities that the court detected when reviewing the documents that the UTA’s own Central Electoral Board submitted to the case. The National Labor Appeals Court halted the UTA elections and set a new date in December The roll records 2,870 removals, all processed between June and August 24, 2026, a period that coincides with the development of the electoral process called on July 14. The cause cited in all cases is identical: termination of employment (by dismissal or resignation), but no record indicates the exact date of the end of the employment relationship, data that the law requires in order to verify whether the worker still had the right to vote. Current regulations protect membership during the 6 months following dismissal or resignation, which means that a worker who has been separated remains eligible to vote during that period. In addition, the documentation of the roll is interrupted as of last August 24. Changes after that date lack verifiable documentary support in the case. The UTA roll comprises 494 polling stations and 61,664 voters, with an average of 125 voters per station. The problem is the distribution: 11 stations exceed 600 voters, with peaks of 1,067, 1,037 and 1,000. The National Electoral Code sets a maximum of 350 voters per station for general political elections. At the opposite extreme, 4 stations have a single registered voter and another 11 have fewer than 4. The Chamber warned that this configuration compromises the secrecy of the vote: in a station with a single voter, the count inevitably reveals the direction of their vote. Stations were also detected in locations that did not appear in the original call, a problem that was also coincidentally denounced by two other of the slates opposing Fernández. Resolution 25/26 of the Electoral Board, dated September 24, approved, ordered the printing of, and ordered the distribution of the ballots, according to the ruling, but the document contains an error that the court considered at least revealing: it states that the ballots will be used in “the elections scheduled for December 7 and 8, 2026,” a date that does not correspond to any current call. The UTA headquarters was taken over in December 2019 by supporters of the opposition figure Miguel Bustinduy Beyond the date error, the resolution acknowledges that the model of the ballots “of all the lists” was prepared by the Electoral Board itself and sent to the printer without each group giving its prior approval regarding its own electoral material. The same resolution admits that only the ruling party’s list was “officialized in its entirety,” while the officialization of the other three “contains exceptions from some Local Branch Electoral Boards.” According to the appellate judges, the document called “Review of Claims,” dated September 22, revealed another set of problems. The Electoral Board admitted more than 500 additions to the roll requested by the Light Blue and White List, of the ruling party, based on documentation that was not shown to the other groups nor subjected to any challenge procedure before the electoral authority. At the same time, “more than 1,000 additional exclusions” were ordered, all without the prior hearing that the UTA statute requires for challenges. Bus drivers will only be able to vote in December for the new head of the UTA (Photo: NA) The Labor Appeals Court explicitly ruled out two more drastic alternatives: annulling the entire process and replacing the Electoral Board with delegates appointed by the courts. The first option would have canceled candidacies already officialized; the second would have affected union autonomy. The Brown List had expressly requested that the process not be annulled and that the candidacies already approved not be lost. The solution adopted is what the ruling calls a “partial retrogradation”: returning to the stage of the submission of lists and endorsements, with the reopening of that period, but keeping in force the call of July 14, the constitution of the Central Electoral Board, and all prior acts that were not flawed. The Supreme Court had in the past discredited rulings that, in matters of union elections, imposed solutions more burdensome than those requested by the parties. The court cited that precedent to justify the limits of its intervention. A protest demonstration by bus drivers in downtown Buenos Aires (Photo: Adrián Escandar) In its ruling, the judges established a detailed roadmap. The Electoral Board has 3 days to deposit with the Chamber the complete roll of active and passive voters, with all additions and removals and their supporting documentation. From that deposit, a period of 10 business days opens for the submission of lists. The groups may reformulate their candidacies or reiterate the previous ones. The definitive officialization of all lists must be resolved no later than next October 30. According to the ruling, the definitive polling stations must be designated before December 1, with a maximum of 600 voters each. The ballots must be in the possession of the Electoral Board at least 10 days before the elections. The count and the proclamation must conclude before December 29, to allow the transfer of offices before the expiration of the terms on January 3, 2027. Roberto Fernández has led the UTA since 2008 and now seeks another reelection The Chamber even established binding rules so that the electoral body cannot repeat the same irregularities. Each removal from the roll must state the cause and the exact date of the termination of the employment relationship. No worker may be excluded if they are within the six-month protection period of their membership. Every addition must have supporting documentation shown to all the groups. And no challenge may be resolved without a prior hearing of the member. In addition, the polling stations may only be installed in the locations listed in the original call. None may exceed 600 voters. Establishments with few workers must be incorporated into the nearest station in the same voting location in order to preserve the secrecy of the vote. The Chamber appointed the lawyer Matías Cremonte as judicial observer, whose powers include attending all sessions of the Electoral Board —which must notify him of each meeting in advance—, having unrestricted access to all records and databases, obtaining copies of any document, attending the voting act and the count, and requesting the assistance of the public security forces if anyone obstructs his work. He may also propose the formation of a corps of assistants for the territorial deployment of the oversight.