Conrado Pérez takes oath as the new CNE rector at the National Assembly. Photo: National Assembly of Venezuela.
On his program Cara a Cara, Venezuelan journalist Clodovaldo Hernández interviewed the rector of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Conrado Pérez, about how the electoral authority is preparing for the multiple electoral processes coming up in 2025.
“On Friday [January 24] we received Dr. Jorge Rodríguez and other members of the parliamentary commission on electoral processes, who spoke with the National Electoral Council, with its rectors,” Pérez said in the interview held on Friday, January 24. “There, they submitted to us the results of the meeting held in the National Assembly, with the participation of 38 political organizations.”
He explained that the CNE received a series of recommendations and criteria issued by the National Assembly regarding the electoral legislative reforms, as well as several proposals on the methodology and the electoral calendar for the current year.
According to Pérez, the CNE rectors will soon meet with the head of the body, Elvis Amoroso, to begin setting the dates for the elections. “Once the dates are finalized, the electoral schedule corresponding to the election of the respective instance will begin. There are about 103 processes related to the elections that have to be carried out,” he said.
“The rectors do not hold elections, the rectors do not count votes. The electoral body consists of almost one million people in various parts of the electoral structure,” he added.
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He emphasized that the CNE has a staff of highly qualified technical professionals. However, the institution suffered a serious setback last year, though he expects it to be resolved as soon as possible, in order to make the CNE’s webpage available to all Venezuelans.
“That would imply publishing the results table by table, which has been the center of the great discussion around the July 28 elections, something that the opposition sectors have wrongly called ‘publishing the minutes,’” he said.
“We have to speak the truth—during the last six months there has been a whole conspiracy against the CNE, like a sniper shooting,” Pérez expressed.
“The elections were held. There was a whole process that, technologically, was complied with by the National Electoral Council and the personnel at the tables, trained for that purpose,” he added. “There was that delicate detail. However, with the hacking of the transmission system, a system fundamental to the electoral process.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
