Venezuela’s Regional Elections: Testimonies from International Electoral Observers

A collection of testimonies from three international electoral observers that monitored Sunday’s regional elections in Venezuela. 

UK-Chilean documentary-maker Pablo Navarrete told VA that he had “full confidence” in Venezuela’s electoral system. 

Salvadoran electoral observer Delmy Carolina Vasquez Alas, a regional leader at the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), talks to VA on Venezuela’s regional vote today.

“We have been able to review four electoral centres. We could see that the voting machines were installed with no problems, and the electoral witnesses from both of the main parties here were introduced to us and present in all four centres. We also witnessed how two voting machines experienced a fault in one centre but were efficiently replaced. We could speak to voters and hear that people are calm and that they trust in this process, they know that it is fast and efficient,” she said.

Vasquez also added that the turnout appeared to be high.

“From what we could see, people kept arriving”.

“If I were to compare this electoral process to the process in El Salvador, well we still have a manual system which is slower and more difficult, not just in emitting the vote, but also in the vote count to give the results to the population… This automatic process in which the voting card is emitted electronically and gives a confirmation slip, I think it is a very good, useful tool, which makes the process more agile,” she said.

Paraguayan academic and electoral observer Guillermo Sequera Netto discusses his impressions of Venezuela’s regional vote on October 15.

“We’re here accompanying the electoral process of Venezuela with the final goal to profoundly understand, observe and comprehend,” he said, explaining the importance of the elections as a collective, social act.

“This is a process of the citizens,” he said.