Venezuela, Political Parties meet to decide 2025 electoral schedule

teleSUR English

Meeting of the Special Commission for the revision of the norms and laws on Electoral Processes in the Venezuelan National Assembly, with broad representation of political parties. teleSUR

Transcript

00:00There are two other ideas regarding this meeting, but I think that it is necessary to highlight

00:14all you present at the level of summoning and attendance by the special commission designated

00:27by the National Assembly to work on the issues related to electoral laws and election programs.

00:41This is a real demonstration of exchanging dialogue, proposals and democratization.

00:50So to do it together by consensus, all these processes that determine the characteristics

00:58of the political practice here in Venezuela.

01:02We have invited all political parties and we have also invited, for the special reason

01:09of this issue, to the governors, to the state governors that were elected by even the opposition.

01:19So I greet governors of the state, Carina Cecerio-Garridos, of the secretary of governorate

01:30of the Zulia state, Dr. Juan Balboa, and representative of governor Ramon Fernandez-Balcano, the special

01:41envoy of another state.

01:44And so here are the legislators, Talia Diaz and Molina, and for the Let's Change Movement,

01:59it's other legislators by the Lapiz Alliance, Eric Ondarroa and Jorge Berragán.

02:14And for the Ecological Movement, Alejandro Aguilera.

02:18And for the Electoral People's Movement, and for the Alliance for Change, Sirio León legislator

02:27and Arianna Araujo.

02:31And for the Ora Movement, Osvaldo Zamora.

02:38And for the Alliance We Can, it's, and for the PSUV, Erika Pereira Rojas.

02:50And so he is mentioning all legislators there present.

03:19For the Communist Party of Venezuela, other political parties' legislators are there,

03:28as Eduardo Martinez, but by the Communist Party of Venezuela, Henry Parra, and for the

03:42Black Action Movement, and for the Homeland for All legislators.

03:50For the Tupamaru Movement, there are other legislators.

03:56And for the Republican Movement, for Red Flags Movement, and for, and he continued mentioning,

04:11for the Popular Right Movement, and for the Green Party of Venezuela, for the Future Movement,

04:22for Movement of the Future of Venezuela, and for Enamorate Venezuela Movement, and for

04:32the Arepa Movement, for the Democratic Confederation, and for the Electoral National Movement,

04:52for the Electoral National Unity, for the Venezuelan Movement, Caracas for All Party,

05:07and a New Time Party.

05:11So he was mentioning all legislators, and so thank you very much for you being here.

05:17It has been a very full attendance of all political parties that made up the whole electoral

05:28panorama of Venezuela.

05:29And even when we are all aware of our breakthroughs regarding fundamental elements of electoral

05:39laws, the law of political participation, all laws that have to do with the electoral

05:50matters.

05:51Besides, in the previous debates, we were working on the constitutional elements related

05:58to elections, political participation, and political rights of Venezuelans, men and women.

06:05So we are right now ahead of a situation, a special situation.

06:14It is 2025, and as the Constitution stipulates, the electoral times are the electoral times.

06:24I don't want to enter into details, into fantasy details, or people that could proclaim

06:35themselves as everlasting legislators, or they degrade monarchies in a strange way,

06:44because some former legislators intend to be legislators forever by the gods.

06:57So their determination is that the polls would be in a written, and that's not the case of

07:08the Venezuelan laws, because here the Constitution stipulates the times, the correct times.

07:19So Venezuela hasn't stopped in the times of the Fifth Republic, hasn't stopped any elections

07:28according to abide by law, by Constitution.

07:33So we are here ahead of a year, not sure in terms of elections.

07:39So we are not only referring to the novel forms of consultations, the approval consultations

07:51and the consultative referendum of the Guyana, or of the popular referendums, or different

08:00forms for consulting the people about the projects in the case of communes and communal councils.

08:10So President Maduro already established, and he consulted with different popular powers,

08:21daily consultations regarding the issues about the nation's budget be allocated directly

08:32to the people through communal districts.

08:36So not only that, but also our Constitution establishes the times for electing the post

08:46that must be renewed or consulted at a certain time abided by our Constitution.

08:54So the President of the Republic, who was elected on July 28th, 2024, as stipulated

09:01by the Constitution, was President Nicolás Maduro on January 10th, but this year we must

09:11elect the National Assembly, the members of the National Assembly.

09:19So whatever it takes on January 5th, 2026, there's going to be installed a new National

09:33Assembly of the Venezuelan Republic, which will be elected by the Venezuelan people.

09:42And so when we determined and we could take that proposal to the last authority.

09:52So in this year we must choose, we must elect legislators of nominal and plurinominal circuits.

10:08This year we have to elect them for installing all members of the National Assembly on next

10:18January 5th, 2026.

10:21And so we have, so the periods for the votes of the popular power varied, and as it happened

10:37at the shooting of 2000, there we renewed all popular votes, and so in this case, there's

10:51a mixture of two elections, and so that it means that in this case, in this 2025, the

11:06members of the states will have to be changed, and the mayors have to be changed too, because

11:17the period ends.

11:19So we must elect regional councils for each of the states, including the Guyana-Zaquiba,

11:30and we must elect the communal councils of the over 100 municipalities.

11:42So to be able to have a clear organization in the development of the electoral events,

11:55with schedules and periods, and that is why we are here, we are summoning this meeting,

12:05to be able to set an electoral program.

12:09So what do we do?

12:11Do we elect, we do choose together, or we do elect all people together, or separately?

12:25That's what we have to define, because in addition, we don't have all year, because

12:33the National Electoral Council needs some time to arrange the electoral events.

12:41So what comes up, or what would be the conclusions of these working meetings, I propose to declare

12:54ourselves in permanent session, because we are running out of time for this program.

13:02What comes up from here would be the proposal of the Special Commission for Dialogue of

13:09the National Assembly, takes to the National Electoral Council, so abided by the Constitution,

13:16it is the only authority of this Republic to be able to summon electoral events,

13:25and to plan elections, and to issue the elected votes.

13:39And so, last year we have met three times in dialogue tables, and so that's an appropriate

13:50methodology to meet in those dialogue tables, and the only recommendation I would make is

13:58to establish proposals of deadlines, and to allow the voter to familiarize with the electoral

14:13event.

14:13So I think it is inconvenient if we made all elections very near, because

14:23so the voter would be confusing, would be stressed if he or she has to attend to all these

14:41polls, but well, that's my opinion.

14:44Depending on what we define, on what we decide, it is likely that we can summon two elections

14:53very near in the future, because the environment of these three elections, of these three coming

15:05elections regarding, so, or if you elected the governor, and if it is, of course, it is a regional

15:24election, because you would be electing the 24 governors, or men and women, with the legislative

15:34councils and the municipal councils.

15:37So when can we propose the National Electoral Council the deadline, and so we have to

15:48arrange three electoral programs for governors of the state, of the mayors, municipal mayors,

15:59councillors, legislators, in addition to the consultations that must be done for

16:07the public power.

16:09So let's have two tasks, mainly to propose deadlines and projects for electoral programs,

16:22and establish the convenience or not of which elections would be first

16:30together or divided, and also what has to do with the rules of the game of what the laws and the

16:44constitution stipulate, and the capacity or not, or the requirements or not, to be

16:53eligible for being nominees of these posts.

17:00And so this National Assembly has been reforming laws, and so the rights of voters has been

17:13debated, and the people who have the right to be voted, they have to comply with a series of

17:23requirements and duties.

17:25I know that, I know some teenagers who would be better for mayors than some mayors we have had,

17:37and as we will establish which requirements are, which are the requirements to be eligible for

17:54being nominated by these posts.

18:00So we have a lot of work to do, and I propose to you to divide some, I propose you to have some

18:08other sessions.

18:17We're watching live this meeting at the National Assembly, led by the president of the National

18:22Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodriguez, with all different political actors of the country,

18:27as they are planning to hold the schedule for the coming elections that are going to be held this

18:31year in Venezuela.

18:32This year Venezuela will hold three elections, three main elections, electoral, local elections,

18:38regional elections, and parliamentary elections.

18:40In the case of the parliamentary elections on next January 5th, 2025, a new National Assembly

18:45will be installed coming out from the results of this election.

18:48So Jorge Rodriguez called the session to be a permanent session, and to work together to find

18:53the best schedules and the best way to carry out these elections, if all of them together

18:57the same day, or maybe two in one day, one another, or all of them separate.

19:01So this is the work that is being carried out right now at the National Assembly.

19:04Stay tuned with Teresa Ringgis for more updates of everything that comes out from these working

19:08tables.

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