Four Vincentians among more than 500 Observers for Venezuela Presidential Elections Sunday

More than 500 election observers, including four from St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), have travelled to Venezuela ahead of presidential elections on Sunday July 28, 2024.

The large number of election observers, comprising journalists, foreign ministers, and members of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) among other entities, are in Venezuela to monitor, record and report on election practices. They are drawn from such countries as Mexico, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), and Tunisia. The Vincentians are Demion Mctair, Chanolde Munroe, Lyf Compton (media practitioners), and Laura Stephens-Dublin of the SVG/Venezuela Friendship Association.

The presence in Venezuela of this large group of monitors comes on the heels of a protest by the United States last May to show what they said was their deep concerns by a decision made by Venezuela to withdraw an invitation to European Union (EU) election observers. Venezuela cited economic sanctions applied by UN Member States as the reason for the withdrawal of the invitation.

However, the United Nations (UN) said in a June 25, 2024 press release that following the completion of a technical assessment, the Secretariat of the UN has responded positively to the request of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela to deploy a UN Panel of Electoral Experts for the July 2024 presidential elections.

“A team of four experts will deploy to the country in early July to provide the Secretary-General with an independent internal report of the overall conduct of the elections. The Panel’s report to the Secretary-General will be confidential and will include recommendations to strengthen future electoral processes in Venezuela,” the release said.

The release noted that a Panel of Electoral Experts is one of the various types of electoral assistance that the United Nations may provide to Member States at their request.

“Unlike UN electoral observation missions, which require a specific mandate by the Security Council or the General Assembly and are extremely rare, Panels of Electoral Experts do not issue evaluative public statements on the overall conduct of the electoral process or their results. Without a mandate, the UN cannot observe or publicly assess a member state election and therefore the Panel of Experts will not issue a public judgment,” the release also states. While there are 10 candidates in Sunday’s electoral race the contest is really between the incumbent president, Nicolás Maduro who took up office in 2013, and Edmundo González Urrutia who is representing the Unitary Platform, the main opposition political alliance.

Maduro heads the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela; PSUV).

According to the website of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) “electronic voting is a heavily audited process in Venezuela. Upon casting a vote electronically, a voter can verify that his or her vote was cast as intended through a paper receipt, which the voter then places into the ballot box”.

“After the close of polling in randomly selected polling stations, officials conduct an audit to ensure that the count from the paper ballots matches the electronic records,” the NDI said.

Venezuela is one of only four countries that uses electronic voting machines for its entire electorate. India, Brazil and Bhutan are the others.