Today is 6D Parliamentary Election Day: More than 14 Thousand Candidates Fight for Seats in Venezuela’s National Assembly, Correa and Evo are International Observers
Today, December 6, more than 14 thousand candidates will contest to get elected to 277 seats in the Venezuelan National Assembly (AN) for a five-year period from 2021 to 2026.
A total of 20,710,421 voters who make up the Venezuelan electoral roll according to the last update of the Electoral Registry in July, will have the opportunity to choose from 107 political organizations — 98 from the opposition and 9 from Chavismo, 144 deputies for the proportional system (52%) and 133 deputies for the nominal system (48%).
According to the electoral offer available on the screen of the voting machine, the political organizations that are participating in the electoral contest for the alliance of the government constitute the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), which is made up of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Patria Para Todos (PPT), Venezuelan Popular Unity, People’s Electoral Movement, Podemos, Somos Venezuela Movement, Venezuelan Revolutionary Currents and the Redes Party.
From the opposition, voters will have the option to elect deputies for the AN from the parties that make up the Democratic Alliance, which are Avanzada Progresista, Esperanza por El Cambio, Cambiemos, Acción Democrática and Copei.
The other opposition alliance is made up of Primero Venezuela, Popular Will, the United Venezuela Party, Solutions for Venezuela, Movement towards Socialism, Procitizens, Union and Progress, Popular Political Unity, Ecological Movement of Venezuela and New Vision for my Country.
Nominations by state
According to information released by the CNE, the states where the greatest number of parliamentary positions will be chosen through both proportional and nominal systems are Zulia with 25 deputies, Miranda with 19, Carabobo with 16, Aragua with 12, and the Capital District (Caracas) and Lara with 13 deputies each.
Among the states with the lowest parliamentary representation are Amazonas, Barinas, Delta Amacuro, Nueva Esparta, Trujillo, Mérida, Portuguesa, La Guaira, Apure, Falcón, Sucre, Yaracuy, Cojedes, Guárico, Monagas, and Táchira, where six, seven, or nine parliamentarians will be elected per state.
In the 2010 parliamentary elections, 165 deputies were elected. Chavismo was the winner of that election with 5,423,324 votes while the opposition obtained 5,320,364 votes. On that occasion, the seats of the AN got distributed among 95 deputies for PSUV, 61 for the opposition Democratic Unity Table (MUD), two for PPT, and seven posts to be defined.
In the elections of 2015, 167 deputies were elected. The MUD obtained majority in the parliament with 109 seats (65.27%) while Chavismo won 55 seats (32.93%).
The expansion in the number of open positions for deputies in this year’s election is the result of application of a population calculation defined in the Venezuelan Constitution. This was agreed upon in the National Dialogue Table where the Venezuelan government negotiated with part of the opposition in this regard. In this negotiation the request of the opposition to apply the current nominal and list method was also accepted in order to provide greater electoral opportunity to minority political parties.
Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa in Venezuela as international observers
More than two hundred international companions from various countries have arrived to observe the parliamentary elections in a country with one of the mot robust election systems in the world. According to former US President Jimmy Carter, whose organization The Carter Center is renowned for observing electoral processes around the world, and who has himself worked as electoral observer in Venezuela several times, the Venezuelan voting system is among the most transparent ones that he has seen.
In Venezuela, in stark contrast to the United States, the results are published by the CNE the same night as the day of the election — no exit polls by the media allowed, nor are they needed, usually with more than 90% of the votes already processed because the voting system is 100% automated. Within 24-48 hours after the closing of the polls, all results upto the level of voting tables (a voting center may have several voting tables) are published in the website of the CNE, allowing every Venezuelan to verify if the results for his/her voting table correspond with the actual results. The scrutiny of votes at each voting table is public, and is also monitored by witnesses of political parties and international observers.
Ecuador’s Rafael Correa arrived in Venezuela on Friday afternoon to join the large contingents of international observers. His presence has raised local and international media interest.
Former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa is among the contingent of international observers for the upcoming National Assembly elections in Venezuela. https://t.co/AmimCAmA31
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) December 4, 2020
On Saturday it was the turn of Bolivia’s Evo Morales to come to Venezuela as electoral observer. Just a few days ago he completed a tour around his country where he was welcomed back as a hero following the victory of Luis Arce of MAS in the presidential elections of October this year, after one year of the de-facto government of Jeanine Áñez that came into power through a coup d’etat lead by sectors of the police and the military in 2019 with the support of the OAS and the United States.
Featured image: File image.
(Ultimas Noticias) with OT content.
Translation: OT/JRE/SC
