National Electoral Council logo. Photo: Venezuela Analysis.
Despite the fact that there are three million Venezuelans abroad who will be able to participate in the opposition primary elections, to date, only 24,800 citizens have updated their information to be able to vote in the elections.
The National Primary Commission reported this weekend that 24,800 Venezuelans abroad updated their data on a portal created by the opposition in order to vote in the opposition primaries on October 22.
There were 10,000 Venezuelans who began the data update process but did not complete it for various reasons.
Venezuelans abroad will be able to vote in 81 cities in 32 countries where, according to data from the organization, 6.5 million Venezuelans live. However, approximately three million of these individuals are eligible to vote.
Voting abroad is one of the priorities for the Venezuelan opposition, since these votes supposedly constitute their hope to win presidential elections.
For this reason, at the National Primary Commission, they maintain a campaign for migrants to register and participate in the internal elections that will elect the opposition candidate for the presidential elections. Apparently, the reception has not been as lively as expected.
“It is essential that they begin to organize themselves in each of these cities,” noted the president of the commission, Jesús María Casal, last May, “because the CNP does not have the resources to cover all the costs that this vote abroad implies.”
It is worth noting that although citizens update their data, this is a registry parallel to that of the National Electoral Council (CNE). Therefore, it does not guarantee that the opposition can count on these votes in the presidential elections.
Recently, the Commission announced that the internal elections of the opposition will be carried out via manual voting and will be self-managed.
This constitutes a new setback for the primary elections, after the opposition parties refused technical assistance from the CNE.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/KW/SL
