This Friday, November 26, was held the election for the indigenous representation to the legislative and municipal councils in eight entities of the country. A total of 4,334 spokesmen for the indigenous peoples and communities of Amazonas, Anzoátegui, Apure, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro, Monagas, Sucre and Zulia states, elected 69 councilors and councilors, as well as 8 legislators to the legislative councils.
The elections, planned as part of the 2021 Regional and Municipal Elections, were held in 74 voting centers, under the nominal modality and by the system of relative majority of votes. The suffrage of the spokespersons, who were previously elected in community assemblies held between July 6 and August 13, was secret and was carried out manually through ballots and behind the dividers arranged for that purpose.
As established in the Manual for the Political Participation of Indigenous Peoples and Communities for this election, each polling station was made up of 3 members: president, main member and secretary or secretary, designated by the Regional Electoral Office of each state. In each of them, a voting notebook was available with the definitive record of the spokespersons, who had to stamp their signature and their fingerprint after casting their vote.
Monagas State:
During the journey, in which the biosecurity measures in prevention of Covid-19 were respected, the witnesses of the indigenous organizations applying were present, as well as the electoral coordinator or coordinator designated for this purpose by the CNE.
The spokespersons empowered for this electoral process made up the Definitive Electoral Registry for this election in the following proportion: 318 spokespersons in Amazonas state; 174 in Delta Amacuro; 314 in Anzoátegui; 199 in Monagas; 128 in Apure; 189 in Sucre; 244 in Bolívar and 2,768 in Zulia state.
Sucre state:
During the election of representatives to the state and municipal deliberative bodies, more than 20 indigenous peoples participated, among them Ye’kuana, Yanomami, Huottoja, Curripaco, Piapoco, Jivi, Bare, Yeral, Piaroa, Puinave, in Amazonas state; Kariña and Cumanagoto, in Anzoátegui state; Pumé, Jivi and Cuiba in Apure state; Ka´riña, Pemón, Warao, Shiriana, Ye´kwana, Curripaco, Eñepa, Hoti, Huottuja, Baniva, Piapoco, Bare, Mapoyo, Pumé, Jivi, Pemón Kamarakoto, Arawako, Sanema in Bolívar state; likewise the representatives of the Warao communities in Delta Amacuro state; Kariña, Chaima, Warao in Delta Amacuro and Sucre states; as well as the Añú, Wayuu, Bari and Yukpa, from Zulia state.
These special elections were witnessed by members of the Latin American Council of Electoral Experts (Ceela), among other delegations of International Observers and electoral officials from the different states with indigenous representation.
Apure State:
On this occasion, the elections to choose the indigenous representation to the regional legislative councils and municipal councils were governed by a special schedule to comply with the decision issued by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice on June 5, 2020, in which ordered a new normative development, as a consequence of the de-application of articles 174 to 186 of the Organic Law of Electoral Processes (LOPRE), with the purpose that the indigenous peoples elect their representatives to the regional and municipal deliberative bodies according to their ancestral customs and practices.
Zulia state:
As a consequence of this decision and with a view to the 2021 Regional and Municipal Elections, on May 26, 2021, the National Electoral Council issued the Special Regulations to Regulate the Election of the Indigenous Representation in the elections of legislators to legislative councils of the states and councilors of the municipal councils 2021, and subsequently the Manual for the Political Participation of Indigenous Peoples and Communities for the Election of Indigenous Representation to the State Legislative Councils and Municipal Councils 2021.
