The Carter Center announced this Friday (21) that it will send an observation mission to the presidential elections in Venezuela, in which dictator Nicolás Maduro will seek a third term, on July 28.
The non-profit organization, founded in 1982 by former United States President Jimmy Carter, said in a statement that it was invited by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela within the scope of the agreement signed in October 2023 between the Venezuelan government and the opposition Unitary Platform in Barbados.
The mission, which will be led by Jennie Lincoln, senior advisor at the Carter Center for Latin America and the Caribbean, will arrive in Venezuela on June 29.
Other electoral experts will arrive in Venezuela in July to observe the elections, in which Maduro will face former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia, candidate of the main opposition coalition.
The Carter Center mission, however, will not carry out a comprehensive assessment of the voting, counting and counting processes due to its limited size and scope, as explained in a statement.
“The mission’s assessments will be based on the national legal framework, as well as regional and international human rights obligations and standards for democratic elections”, he detailed.
The Carter Center has observed several elections in Venezuela, including sending a mission of experts to the 2021 regional and local elections.
At the time, the organization pointed out that the process was carried out “in the context of a widespread socioeconomic and humanitarian crisis (aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic), a pattern of political repression, severely restricted rights to political participation and freedom of expression, use clear from the government of its current political advantage and unequal competitive conditions”.
In May, the CNE announced the revocation of the invitation for an electoral observation mission from the European Union, on the grounds that sanctions that were ratified by the bloc would harm Venezuela’s economy – although such measures only affect individuals from the Maduro regime, and not state-owned companies and public goods.
The president of the CNE, Chavista Elvis Amoroso, denied a request from the EU for the body to reconsider the decision and made accusations that the bloc “seeks to interfere in the decisions” of the electoral body.
“The European Union has behaved as a partial and aggressive actor, which infringes on national dignity and additionally becomes a factor of disruption in electoral processes, maintaining the illegal and illegitimate application of coercive, unilateral and genocidal measures, with the sole objective of cause harm to the Venezuelan population,” said Amoroso. (With EFE Agency)
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