Meeting of the Special Commission for the revision of the norms and laws on Electoral Processes in the Venezuelan National Assembly, with broad representation of political parties. teleSUR
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00There are two other ideas regarding this meeting, but I think that it is necessary to highlight
00:14all you present at the level of summoning and attendance by the special commission designated
00:27by the National Assembly to work on the issues related to electoral laws and election programs.
00:41This is a real demonstration of exchanging dialogue, proposals and democratization.
00:50So to do it together by consensus, all these processes that determine the characteristics
00:58of the political practice here in Venezuela.
01:02We have invited all political parties and we have also invited, for the special reason
01:09of this issue, to the governors, to the state governors that were elected by even the opposition.
01:19So I greet governors of the state, Carina Cecerio-Garridos, of the secretary of governorate
01:30of the Zulia state, Dr. Juan Balboa, and representative of governor Ramon Fernandez-Balcano, the special
01:41envoy of another state.
01:44And so here are the legislators, Talia Diaz and Molina, and for the Let's Change Movement,
01:59it's other legislators by the Lapiz Alliance, Eric Ondarroa and Jorge Berragán.
02:14And for the Ecological Movement, Alejandro Aguilera.
02:18And for the Electoral People's Movement, and for the Alliance for Change, Sirio León legislator
02:27and Arianna Araujo.
02:31And for the Ora Movement, Osvaldo Zamora.
02:38And for the Alliance We Can, it's, and for the PSUV, Erika Pereira Rojas.
02:50And so he is mentioning all legislators there present.
03:19For the Communist Party of Venezuela, other political parties' legislators are there,
03:28as Eduardo Martinez, but by the Communist Party of Venezuela, Henry Parra, and for the
03:42Black Action Movement, and for the Homeland for All legislators.
03:50For the Tupamaru Movement, there are other legislators.
03:56And for the Republican Movement, for Red Flags Movement, and for, and he continued mentioning,
04:11for the Popular Right Movement, and for the Green Party of Venezuela, for the Future Movement,
04:22for Movement of the Future of Venezuela, and for Enamorate Venezuela Movement, and for
04:32the Arepa Movement, for the Democratic Confederation, and for the Electoral National Movement,
04:52for the Electoral National Unity, for the Venezuelan Movement, Caracas for All Party,
05:07and a New Time Party.
05:11So he was mentioning all legislators, and so thank you very much for you being here.
05:17It has been a very full attendance of all political parties that made up the whole electoral
05:28panorama of Venezuela.
05:29And even when we are all aware of our breakthroughs regarding fundamental elements of electoral
05:39laws, the law of political participation, all laws that have to do with the electoral
05:50matters.
05:51Besides, in the previous debates, we were working on the constitutional elements related
05:58to elections, political participation, and political rights of Venezuelans, men and women.
06:05So we are right now ahead of a situation, a special situation.
06:14It is 2025, and as the Constitution stipulates, the electoral times are the electoral times.
06:24I don't want to enter into details, into fantasy details, or people that could proclaim
06:35themselves as everlasting legislators, or they degrade monarchies in a strange way,
06:44because some former legislators intend to be legislators forever by the gods.
06:57So their determination is that the polls would be in a written, and that's not the case of
07:08the Venezuelan laws, because here the Constitution stipulates the times, the correct times.
07:19So Venezuela hasn't stopped in the times of the Fifth Republic, hasn't stopped any elections
07:28according to abide by law, by Constitution.
07:33So we are here ahead of a year, not sure in terms of elections.
07:39So we are not only referring to the novel forms of consultations, the approval consultations
07:51and the consultative referendum of the Guyana, or of the popular referendums, or different
08:00forms for consulting the people about the projects in the case of communes and communal councils.
08:10So President Maduro already established, and he consulted with different popular powers,
08:21daily consultations regarding the issues about the nation's budget be allocated directly
08:32to the people through communal districts.
08:36So not only that, but also our Constitution establishes the times for electing the post
08:46that must be renewed or consulted at a certain time abided by our Constitution.
08:54So the President of the Republic, who was elected on July 28th, 2024, as stipulated
09:01by the Constitution, was President Nicolás Maduro on January 10th, but this year we must
09:11elect the National Assembly, the members of the National Assembly.
09:19So whatever it takes on January 5th, 2026, there's going to be installed a new National
09:33Assembly of the Venezuelan Republic, which will be elected by the Venezuelan people.
09:42And so when we determined and we could take that proposal to the last authority.
09:52So in this year we must choose, we must elect legislators of nominal and plurinominal circuits.
10:08This year we have to elect them for installing all members of the National Assembly on next
10:18January 5th, 2026.
10:21And so we have, so the periods for the votes of the popular power varied, and as it happened
10:37at the shooting of 2000, there we renewed all popular votes, and so in this case, there's
10:51a mixture of two elections, and so that it means that in this case, in this 2025, the
11:06members of the states will have to be changed, and the mayors have to be changed too, because
11:17the period ends.
11:19So we must elect regional councils for each of the states, including the Guyana-Zaquiba,
11:30and we must elect the communal councils of the over 100 municipalities.
11:42So to be able to have a clear organization in the development of the electoral events,
11:55with schedules and periods, and that is why we are here, we are summoning this meeting,
12:05to be able to set an electoral program.
12:09So what do we do?
12:11Do we elect, we do choose together, or we do elect all people together, or separately?
12:25That's what we have to define, because in addition, we don't have all year, because
12:33the National Electoral Council needs some time to arrange the electoral events.
12:41So what comes up, or what would be the conclusions of these working meetings, I propose to declare
12:54ourselves in permanent session, because we are running out of time for this program.
13:02What comes up from here would be the proposal of the Special Commission for Dialogue of
13:09the National Assembly, takes to the National Electoral Council, so abided by the Constitution,
13:16it is the only authority of this Republic to be able to summon electoral events,
13:25and to plan elections, and to issue the elected votes.
13:39And so, last year we have met three times in dialogue tables, and so that's an appropriate
13:50methodology to meet in those dialogue tables, and the only recommendation I would make is
13:58to establish proposals of deadlines, and to allow the voter to familiarize with the electoral
14:13event.
14:13So I think it is inconvenient if we made all elections very near, because
14:23so the voter would be confusing, would be stressed if he or she has to attend to all these
14:41polls, but well, that's my opinion.
14:44Depending on what we define, on what we decide, it is likely that we can summon two elections
14:53very near in the future, because the environment of these three elections, of these three coming
15:05elections regarding, so, or if you elected the governor, and if it is, of course, it is a regional
15:24election, because you would be electing the 24 governors, or men and women, with the legislative
15:34councils and the municipal councils.
15:37So when can we propose the National Electoral Council the deadline, and so we have to
15:48arrange three electoral programs for governors of the state, of the mayors, municipal mayors,
15:59councillors, legislators, in addition to the consultations that must be done for
16:07the public power.
16:09So let's have two tasks, mainly to propose deadlines and projects for electoral programs,
16:22and establish the convenience or not of which elections would be first
16:30together or divided, and also what has to do with the rules of the game of what the laws and the
16:44constitution stipulate, and the capacity or not, or the requirements or not, to be
16:53eligible for being nominees of these posts.
17:00And so this National Assembly has been reforming laws, and so the rights of voters has been
17:13debated, and the people who have the right to be voted, they have to comply with a series of
17:23requirements and duties.
17:25I know that, I know some teenagers who would be better for mayors than some mayors we have had,
17:37and as we will establish which requirements are, which are the requirements to be eligible for
17:54being nominated by these posts.
18:00So we have a lot of work to do, and I propose to you to divide some, I propose you to have some
18:08other sessions.
18:17We're watching live this meeting at the National Assembly, led by the president of the National
18:22Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodriguez, with all different political actors of the country,
18:27as they are planning to hold the schedule for the coming elections that are going to be held this
18:31year in Venezuela.
18:32This year Venezuela will hold three elections, three main elections, electoral, local elections,
18:38regional elections, and parliamentary elections.
18:40In the case of the parliamentary elections on next January 5th, 2025, a new National Assembly
18:45will be installed coming out from the results of this election.
18:48So Jorge Rodriguez called the session to be a permanent session, and to work together to find
18:53the best schedules and the best way to carry out these elections, if all of them together
18:57the same day, or maybe two in one day, one another, or all of them separate.
19:01So this is the work that is being carried out right now at the National Assembly.
19:04Stay tuned with Teresa Ringgis for more updates of everything that comes out from these working
19:08tables.