MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

OAS and EU spotlight Venezuelan electoral process

Organization of American States, OAS, and European Union observers expressed concern because a significant sector of the Venezuelan electorate was left without congressional representation following the pull out of the opposition from last Sunday's legislative election.

President Hugo Chavez and allied parties now have a two thirds majority in the 167 seats National Assembly, sufficient to reform the Constitution and remove the current limit of two presidential terms in office.

The OAS report states that in spite of the right to participate in the electoral process, "it's worrisome that because the opposition pulled out, an important sector of the electorate was left without representation in the National Assembly".

"All democracies need a committed institutional elected opposition so is can participate with loyalty in the democratic system", adds the report.

The OAS delegation also underlined concern over the mutual distrust of Venezuelan political actors which erodes the electoral foundation of a democratic system and "particularly" the fact that a significant sector of the opposition "persists in its mistrust of the National Electoral Council, CNE".

"In spite of the important guarantees extended by the CNE, responding to a request from the opposition, they finally decided not to participate", reads the report.

Among the guarantees mentioned in the report is the elimination of the "fingerprint" system and the electronic voting notebooks, an increase in the number of audits when polling booths close, additional space in the media for electoral propaganda and international observers during the whole electoral process.

The European Union delegation also pointed out that many Venezuelans do not trust the electoral system and this was evident in the 75% abstention during the recent Congressional election.

"Important sectors of Venezuelan society do not trust the electoral process", said Jose Silva a member of the EU delegation.

This apparently was to a great extent, the result of the campaign promoted by opposition political groupings that pulled out from the election claiming lack of transparency in the process.

The opposition campaign was focused almost exclusively in the lack of confidence in the electoral system and the National Electoral Council's absence of independence.

"For us there was transparency in the electoral process" emphasized Mr. Silva.

Venezuela's main opposition parties claimed that four of the five CNE members, including the president, are partial towards the Chavez administration.

The main opposition groupings, Accion Democratica, Socialcristiano Copei, Proyecto Venezuela and Zulianidad block requested, before pulling out, that last Sunday's election be suspended to review objections to the voting system.

The latest CNE release shows that 25% of the electorate, 2.973.872 voters participated in the Sunday poll out of a total electorate force of 11.955.956.

The United States State Department also called for electoral reform arguing that Venezuelans showed "a broad lack of confidence in the impartiality and transparency of the process".

Teodoro Petkoff, editor of opposition-leaning newspaper TalCual, said the vote had "buried" the country's electoral system.

"The government has a problem, it cannot ignore a single-coloured parliament elected amid a gigantic abstention," he added.

Officials in the Fifth Republic Movement, Mr Chavez's party, said it had won 114 seats in the 167-seat single-chamber. Previously, Mr Chavez's supporters held only 89 seats.