Proportional vote, the other injured party in the Venezuelan electoral system

The simulation of the National Electoral Council (CNE) from Venezuela highlighted the technical difficulty that citizens will have in the November regional and local elections to “cross-vote” (elect candidates from different parties for different positions) which, according to NGOs and experts, puts at risk the personalization of the vote and the plurality of the nation.

The director of the Free Democracy and Elections Chair of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), Eglée González-Lobato, indicated that, even if a voter manages to “cross-vote”, it is not guaranteed that the candidate, especially from a minority party, will achieve the charge because in the country the D’hondt method was eliminated and a parallel system was switched.

“(With the D’Hondt method) the list (vote) was subtracted, because the nominal (vote) was privileged, but the problem is that when you have them parallel, that is, the nominal does not subtract from the list. I win, I take everything and you who lose, lose everything. Although the difference in votes is small, “he explained.

The lawyer and former CNE legal consultant pointed out that this system is “unfair” especially with regional organizations, because they have leadership in a specific sector of the country.

“When there is a system like this, it costs them a lot, for example, to get (candidates) to the Legislative Councils and the Municipal Councils. Because of that defining character of a system that favors the majority and that in politics translates into polarization, “he added.

Although this will affect most of all the collegiate positions of the Legislative Council and the Municipal, González-Lobato said that a similar situation can occur with the opposition candidates for governors and mayors before the different alliances that were agreed.

Electoral confusion

The Venezuelan Electoral Observatory (OEV) explained in its most recent report, on the electoral simulation of last October 10, that the voting process is simple, but it becomes more complicated when trying to choose candidates from different political organizations because of how the elections are presented. options in the electoral machine.

The organization indicated that the voter must first select a card from a political party and that by default the entire vote is tied to that first selection.

“Casting a cross vote (that is, the mayor of one party and the councilors of another, for example) can be technically possible, but it will be more complex for the voter, because he will have to deselect a voting option, go back to the main interface to make other individualized selections of other cards until completing their vote for all positions, “they said.

The OEV warned that this generates confusion among citizens to know the complete electoral offer and the difficulty to “choose with conscience” who will be their local and regional leaders.

“On previous occasions we have warned about the risk of weakening the principle of personalization of the vote. The possibility of cross-voting must be part of the institutional campaigns of an educational and explanatory nature to promote the vote. In attention to the freedom and capacity of the voters, but also to the quality of democracy in the country ”, they added.

Return to proportionality

In González-Lobato’s opinion, the CNE, together with the largest number of political parties and civil society actors, must make modifications so that the country’s electoral system returns to proportionality and the personalization of the vote.

Likewise, it considers that the voter has ceased to be the most important thing in the electoral system.

“The electoral system is giving privileges to political parties, which is correct, but everything depends on the will of the voter. It has to be how it is achieved that the voter exercises his right, that he chooses the candidates and that will give an ecosystem of parties, but I do not think first of the ecosystem and then of the voter, “he said.

However, the major changes that the system requires will not be able to be implemented for these elections due to lack of time, but González-Lobato said that the ideal is for the electoral body to carry out a massive and local information campaign on the options that voters have. at the time of voting.

Regarding this aspect, the president of the CNE, Pedro Calzadilla, assured on October 10 that, given the number of votes that will be cast in November, they already have the “devices” prepared to explain “very well to the population” the modalities they have to vote. .

“This choice is complex. The electoral fair is approaching, it is a day that for a month will be disseminating, promoting and guiding the population on how it is going to work, how this electoral offer behaves in each municipality, in each state, in each constituency ”, he added.