EU Mission recommends separation of powers of the Venezuelan State

The Electoral Observation Mission of the European Union (EOM-EU) sent to Venezuela recommended this Tuesday to the Caribbean country that it improve the separation of the powers of the State, especially the Judiciaryto give greater autonomy to the National Electoral Council (CNE).

This follows from the final report presented at a virtual press conference from Brussels by the head of the mission, Isabel Santos, whose first recommendation is the “separation of State powers, particularly the Judicial Power, represented at its highest level by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ)”.

After the local and regional elections held on November 21, which were observed by the EOM-EU, the TSJ suspended the recount and the proclamation of the winner in the state of Barinas, where Hugo Chávez was born, despite the fact that there had been opposition candidate Freddy Superlano won by a narrow margin.

The elections were repeated, by order of the high court, on January 9 and, once again, an opposition candidate won, although the EOM-EU was not in those elections as it exceeded the period that they had agreed with the CNE for their permanence in Venezuela.

In the final report of the EOM-EU, Santos also explained that They have included as a recommendation “repeal the power of the Comptroller General” so that it does not prevent citizens “from standing for election through an administrative procedure and without timely notification.”

He also asked the authorities to put in place “voter education campaigns focused, above all, on the trust, integrity and secrecy of electronic voting”.

Another of the recommendations states that “the sanctioning powers of the CNE must be reinforced with a control system and a range of sanctions depending on the seriousness of the infractions, especially with regard to the use of State resources in the campaign.”

Finally, and within the 23 recommendations included, Santos highlighted that it should be “guarantee a correct, balanced media coverage of the electoral campaigns, especially in the State media”.

When asked about the performance of her task, she stated that during her stay in Venezuela the members of the mission were able to visit everything they wanted “with total freedom of movement and freedom of expression.”

Regarding whether the local and regional elections last November can be described as “free, equitable and fair”, a frequent claim by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, Santos replied that “this type of election classification is something very reductive.”

Therefore, he clarified that “international organizations do not really adopt this type of classification of elections in different countries.”

“An electoral act is something more complex that cannot be translated into three words,” he stressed. (I)