The National Constituent Assembly (ANC) approved the disapplication of the Constituent Decree for Participation in Electoral Processes, published in Official Gazette 41.308 of December 27, 2017, in order to promote the widest participation of the people in the upcoming electoral process to elect the deputies to the National Assembly for the period 2021-2025 and thus facilitate the registration of candidates before the National Electoral Council (CNE).
The aforementioned agreement establishes that the political parties in which criminal proceedings are brought before the Venezuelan justice system will remain exempted.
It should be remembered that the aforementioned Constitutional Decree of 2017 established that organizations with political purposes to participate in national, regional or municipal electoral processes must have participated in the immediately preceding national, regional or municipal constitutional period elections, in addition to complying with the other requirements provided in the Law on Political Parties, Public Meetings and Demonstrations.
Said regulations indicated that parties that did not comply with this provision should proceed to a renewal process, contemplated in the Law on Political Parties, Public Meetings and Demonstrations.
Support for a new CNE directorate:
In the agreement approved this Wednesday, the ANC endorsed the constitutional designation of the members of the Electoral Power, made by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).
It should be recalled that on June 12, the Constitutional Chamber of the TSJ appointed the principal and alternate rectors of the National Electoral Council (CNE), after declaring the unconstitutional omission of the National Assembly in contempt.
The following were appointed to form the CNE: Indira Maira Alfonzo Izaguirre, as principal rector and president of the highest electoral body; Rafael Simón Jiménez Melean, as principal rector and vice president of the CNE; Tania D’Amelio Cardiet, as principal rector; Gladys María Gutiérrez Alvarado, as principal rector and José Luis Gutiérrez Parra, as principal rector.
As for the alternate rectors of the National Electoral Council, they were appointed: Abdón Rodolfo Hernández Rodríguez, Alex David Said Díaz Padrón, Carlos Enrique Quintero Cuevas, Jennycet Caroliska Villalobos, Juan Carlos Delpino Boscán, Luis Delfín Fuenmayor Toro, Fanck Antero Pic Durán, Gloria Adelaida Muñoz, Deyanira Briceño and Eleusis Aly Borrego.
During the ANC debate on Wednesday, intervened constituent Hermann Escarrá, who stressed that the decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) to declare the legislative omission to appoint the new authorities of the Electoral Power, responds to the guidelines established in number 7 of article 336.
In this sense, Escarrá stressed that the Bolivarian Revolution, on the constitutional level, “perfected democratic and political institutions”, organizing “the constitutional jurisdiction so that all activities of the State, institutions and citizens are framed in the principles and values that the people gave up the Constitution” in the approval referendum of 1999.
Therefore, he referred that article 336 resolves the legislative omission of the National Assembly in contempt. For Escarrá, this legislative omission has been serious because since January 2016, it has not fulfilled its control function or approved the necessary laws for the country.
On the contrary, in recent years, the parliament has devoted to stimulating coups d’état and institutional ruptures, despite repeated calls for dialogue made by the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, as denounced Escarrá.
Likewise, he pointed out that it has represented a legitimate path the request for legislative omission made before the TSJ on June 4 by the political organizations Soluciones para Venezuela; Cambiemos, MAS, Avanzada Progresista and COPEI.
“They chose that path to replace the contempt, and on January 5 we will see a new National Assembly. Those who remain in rebellion, contempt and non-compliance with the Constitution, I am sure that they will be ethically and morally sanctioned. The new National Assembly will be the way to rebuild the best harmony and relationship between all powers”, he said, while assuring that the ANC will have the role of watching “so that the new parliament installed in January 2021 complies with the Constitution, democracy and the people of Venezuela”.
