Venezuela's National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso giving statements to the press on Wednesday, April 11, 2024. Photo: X/@cneesvzla.
The president of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, denied that the CNE had restricted the registration of presidential candidates. On the contrary, he stated that the CNE guaranteed the political rights of all candidates for the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for July 28.
The electoral authority did not clarify, however, why Corina Yoris, appointed at the last minute by far-right Maria Corina Machado, to run in her name, was not able to register as a candidate in the registration process that ended last March 25.
Within the framework of the memorandum of understanding signed between the CNE and international observers, Amoroso stated that the Electoral Branch gave all sectors the opportunity to participate in the presidential elections.
He specified that 37 political organizations formalized their registration for the elections, and that “all those that are participating presented candidates.”
In this regard, he clarified that it is false that they have denied registration to any candidate. He assured that this is malicious information being spread by some media outlets.
🔴 Elvis Amoroso anunció que los 13 candidatos presidenciales fueron admitidos por el CNE para la elección presidencial del 28 de julio.
🗣 Cada uno de los 37 partidos políticos postuló a un candidato para las elecciones presidenciales del próximo 28 de julio, dijo.
📌 VTV pic.twitter.com/SXp21oeyhW
— 𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖 (@polianalitica) April 11, 2024
However, he alleged that there were people who did not meet the requirements to register in this electoral race.
Amoroso added that the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), through the Constitutional and Electoral Chamber, is in charge of notifying the Electoral Branch if the disqualification of any potential candidate.
In this regard, he explained that there were some political leaders who approached the TSJ to challenge his disqualification, but others did not do so.
“We are obliged to comply with the mandate of the TSJ and that is what happened,” said Elvis Amoroso without providing further details.
Meeting with Ceela and Opeir
This Thursday, the CNE signed a memorandum of understanding with representatives of the Council of Electoral Experts of Latin America (Ceela) and the Strategic Thinking Observatory for Regional Integration (Opeir).
The agreement establishes that the objective of their upcoming missions is “to contribute to the promotion of democratic systems, citizen participation, and peace.”
Furthermore, the agreement emphasizes that the specific objective of the missions is ” to accompany the process from its pre-electoral phase and to witness the audits.”
These electoral observation missions will also be present during the training of voting machine operators, the training of polling station members, the electoral fair, and the campaign.
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“The members of the oversight missions must expressly submit to the laws, regulations, and other administrative provisions in electoral matters”, the CNE pointed out.
Likewise, they agreed that the missions will be based in Caracas and will be deployed in several states of the country, according to the plans they have to submit to the CNE.
Finally, the electoral observation missions will issue a report detailing the electoral activities and will present to the CNE an analysis of the methodology used and the audits carried out.
“The reports may contain suggestions and recommendations. In no case will the conclusions of the aforementioned reports have legal effects on the electoral process and much less be binding on the Venezuelan authority,” the agreement reads.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/DZ
