The National Electoral Council (CNE in Spanish) is doing all it can to favour the current regime. Vicente Díaz, the only non-Chavista of the 4 directors, proposed inviting the European Union and the OAS to the September elections of the National Assembly, but the others rejected the motion.
Why don't Chavistas want the EU to go to Venezuela this time, unlike in 2006? Is it because they feel the mood has changed and most people have opened their eyes? Perhaps the Venezuelan regime will now invite people like German communist Sarah Wagenknecht to act as a "EU observer" and then tell people the European Union sent witnesses and these witnesses showed great rejoice.
The citizens of the US and UK have electoral systems that do not guarantee proportional representation. That is according to their laws and it is up to them to keep those laws or not. But in Venezuela the law - the constitution - clearly says the seats should be allocated according to proportional representation, with only an exception setting apart 3 representatives for native American communities. The regime has been gerrymandering big time. As El Universal tells us, some states are more equal than others. El Universal tells us that 52% of the Venezuelan population in 6 states elect 36% of the representatives. There was already a violation of proportional representativity in the 2000 elections, but this time it gets worse.
Why don't Chavistas want the EU to go to Venezuela this time, unlike in 2006? Is it because they feel the mood has changed and most people have opened their eyes? Perhaps the Venezuelan regime will now invite people like German communist Sarah Wagenknecht to act as a "EU observer" and then tell people the European Union sent witnesses and these witnesses showed great rejoice.
The citizens of the US and UK have electoral systems that do not guarantee proportional representation. That is according to their laws and it is up to them to keep those laws or not. But in Venezuela the law - the constitution - clearly says the seats should be allocated according to proportional representation, with only an exception setting apart 3 representatives for native American communities. The regime has been gerrymandering big time. As El Universal tells us, some states are more equal than others. El Universal tells us that 52% of the Venezuelan population in 6 states elect 36% of the representatives. There was already a violation of proportional representativity in the 2000 elections, but this time it gets worse.
The voters in the blue states
elect 36% of all deputies
But things are much worse than that. One of those states "in blue" above is Chavista, two in orange are rather more oppo. Blogger If people in Carabobo vote exactly as they did in 2008's governor elections (regarding oppo or regime), about 54% of voters would go for the opposition. If we had the same electoral districts for the National Assembly as in 2005, 54% would get 4 out of 6 representatives...
Thanks to the pro-government Electoral Committee, we are getting - if we "only" have 54% of the votes - 1 out of 7 (SEVEN) representatives now.
Click on that map to see my previous post on gerrymandering in Carabobo
Quico wrote extensively on the gerrymandering question at national level in his blog (there is a tiny error in the Carabobo electoral circuits' map, but that is it).
Last but not least: according to the constitution, active members of the military cannot be members of a political party. An NGO showed live how the online CNE database for PSUV members contained several high ranking and currently active generals. The CNE has not said anything yet.
Those military are supposed to guarantee the the voting process in all its critical phases.