Venezuela's electoral minister dismisses OAS & EU reports
By Aleksander Boyd
15.12.05 | Echoing the party line Venezuela's electoral minister Jorge Rodriguez dismissed today the "political opinions" expressed, according to him, by OAS and European observers invited by the institution he heads to monitor assembly elections held Dec. 4, stressing that only objective observations will get his attention. Recent bravado performance notwithstanding, Rodriguez put up a charm offensive, in the days prior to the election, with international observers to whom he allegedly asked to intercede in favour of the process by means of convincing opposition political parties to stay in the race. Venezuelan sources report that opposition parties will not participate in electoral processes in the future until Rodriguez is removed from his post and a new independent electoral board is legally appointed. Said request could well be unattainable given the monochromatic characteristic of the new illegitimate assembly, which, ultimately, is the entity in charge of electoral appointments according to current legislation.
Meanwhile journalist Rafael Poleo puts the percentage of electorate that participated in Dec. 4 elections in 7%, while Venezuela's National Electoral Council is yet to publish the final figures, 11 days after the election.
A multipartisan group of Spanish Senators, which included representatives of Zapatero's ruling socialist party (PSOE), expressed today serious concerns vis-a-vis Venezuela's democracy, affirming that the recent electoral process had "irregularities," as stated by the EUEOM report.
Conversely Foreign Secretary Ali Rodriguez announced from Hong Kong that Venezuela will denounce before appropriate authorities the OAS preliminary report, for it was, he claims, written by the US administration. (Feel the burn MoFos...)
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