VenEconomy // Countdown to parliamentary elections ... cause for concern

VenEconomy: Venezuela is now in the countdown to its parliamentary elections. But a stream of incidents, also of national importance, has relegated this event in the media and in the minds of the general public.

But then, a few days ago, the parliamentary elections hit the headlines again when the Chilean Senate issued a communiqué requesting authorization from Venezuela's electoral authorities to attend those elections as international observers. In any country where democracy prevails, this request would have met with the acceptance of the electoral authorities. But in Chavez' Venezuela it was rejected by the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Chavista benches in the National Assembly.

The president of the CNE, Tibisay Lucena, barred the Chilean parliamentarians as observers on the grounds of "the political positions contained in the agreement of the Chilean Senate," and claimed that their presence as observers at these elections would be a threat to Venezuela's sovereignty. Then, the president of the National Assembly, Cilia Flores, backing Lucena, called the Chilean senators "stupid" and "ridiculous."

This irate refusal to accredit the Chilean observers makes no sense if account is taken of the fact that a sizeable group of representatives from the CNE and Venezuela's National Assembly attended the Colombian parliamentary elections just a few months ago.

This should serve as a wake-up call for everyone. This is the last straw in terms of the repercussions resulting from the lack of independence of the branches of government in Venezuela, the only guarantee that people have that the parliamentary elections will be held in conditions of transparency and objectivity. But unfortunately it seems that Venezuelans were not surprised by the CNE's refusal, nor have they reacted to it. Even more unfortunate is the fact that it is just one more of the many violations of Venezuelans' electoral rights that have been committed by the Chavez administration.

The long list of measures and actions violating those constitutional rights starts with the enactment of the Electoral Processes Law, which drastically changed the country's electoral system, from a proportional system of minorities to a majority system.

This change in the law promoted the manipulation of the electoral districts, a strange proliferation of new polling stations, the appointment of election officers who will be manning the polling stations with a clear predomination of Chavistas, and, above all, the abusive use of the state-owned media, presidential nationwide networked broadcasts, and other government institutions and resources to promote the government. On top of this communications hegemony in the hands of the government, there is now the threat Chavez has been making to put his representatives on the board of Globovision before September 26, which would leave the democratic sector that opposes Chavez' communist project with no voice at all.

And if none of this gives people cause for concern, they should pay attention to Chavez' call to his governors and mayors to devote themselves full time to the elections: "We are not fighting for just one seat, no. This is a matter of life or death."

This time, those who want to restore democracy in Venezuela need to take the President at his word and put the following objectives at the top of their agenda: getting a mass turnout at the elections; achieving mass representation among witnesses and electoral officers on the day of the elections as the only way of defending the results; and getting opposition candidates to go door to door in their districts to spread the word about the country we want.