The Venezuelan NGO Súmate denounced this Thursday that the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela has “more than seven months” without publishing the status of the movements that increase and decrease the national voter registration, whose last cut was updated to September 30 of 2022.
“The Súmate Civil Association considers that this violates the right of every person to access information and data about themselves contained in official or private records.” What is established in article 28 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The citizen organization adds that with this information gap it also fails to comply with its legal duties as the governing body of the Electoral Power to “guarantee the timely and correct updating of the Electoral Registry, permanently and uninterrupted”, provided for in article 33, numeral 18, of the Organic Law of Electoral Power (LOPE).
As well as complying with the principle of “Administrative Efficiency” which requires that “the administrative procedures and procedures of the Electoral Registry must be transparent, timely, pertinent, efficient, effective and easy to understand.” Stipulated in article 33 of the Organic Law of Electoral Processes (Lopre).
For the NGO, the absence of updated information from the Electoral Registry prevents citizens from knowing if the procedures carried out to register or update their new residence and voting center have been processed and approved. As well as requests for correction of personal data and claims to lift any of the objections imposed by the CNE.
Alert that since last August 2022 the CNE has not reported to which court the electoral information available on its web portal corresponds.
Join us on the information gap of the CNE
This information vacuum makes it difficult for political and civil society organizations to promote “the right to participate freely in public affairs.” In addition to the planning of actions to mobilize citizens to register or update their data. Movements that until now are restricted in the Regional Electoral Offices (ORE) of the CNE.
Likewise, it expresses its concern because to date the rectors of the CNE have not responded to the requests of more than 10 million Venezuelans who are not registered or who need to update their data.
The figure corresponds to some 4 million registered in the RE and more than 1 million not registered abroad; more than 2 million who need to update their residence and voting center data in the country, because they were migrated without consultation or because they moved and live in a geographical environment very distant from the place where they vote; at least 2 million young people of voting age within the national territory and who are not registered; and more than 700,000 young people who are expected to reach the age of 18 between 2023 and 2024, 600,000 within Venezuela and 100,000 abroad.
He considers that there is no justification for the CNE not having brought the Electoral Registry closer to this set of compatriots in 2022. Nor in the first quarter of 2023.
Especially when it is known that a progressive decrease of the voters in the Electoral Registry is taking place. What he found by comparing the last five cuts. January 31, April 30, July 31, August 31 and September 30, 2022.
Last cut was made more than seven months ago
According to this last cut from more than seven months ago, the total number of voters is 21,940,629. Of these, 20,866,385 are Venezuelans (20,758,507 in the national territory and 107,878 abroad) and 228,244 foreigners. Of these, only Venezuelans registered inside and outside the country have the right to vote in the 2024 Presidential Elections.
Additionally, the NGO specifies that when the magnifying glass is placed on the five aforementioned cuts, it finds that the exclusions due to death far exceed the number of new enrollees. Which is an indicator that the CNE has not been efficient in fulfilling its duty to facilitate the registration procedures in the RE.
This knowing that there are more than 3,500,000 Venezuelans between 18 and 45 years of age who are not registered. Likewise, it reports having identified irregular behavior in this latest movement of new enrollees in some federal entities in the country. Well, he detected that in some sections of the RE they increase and in others they decrease, or vice versa, among other anomalies.
Electoral Registry inside and outside the country
Finally, Súmate urges the CNE to fulfill its duty to facilitate the Registration and Update of Data to Venezuelans over 18 years of age inside and outside the country.
Which is estimated at about 25,700,000 by December 2024. This is according to the population projection provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
If the CNE does not bring the RE closer to all Venezuelans, more than 10,000,000 of them, could be prevented from exercising this right in the Presidential Elections.
To guarantee the vote, he proposes that the CNE must establish RE Centers in each of the 335 municipalities of the country. As well as activating Special Days in the course of the years 2023 and 2024, with the deployment of more than 1,500 points.
It also asks to open RE Centers in all consular offices and sections of the country’s diplomatic representations abroad, which it considers insufficient to serve more than 5,400,000 compatriots.
Among them, 1,357,491 need to register, 4,072,474 need to update their new residence and voting center data. The figure is estimated from the more than 7,200,000 Venezuelan migrants according to the Interagency Platform for refugees and migrants from Venezuela.