Venezuelan Electoral Council Warns Against Unbalanced Coverage of Referendum

This Monday, the
President of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela, Tibisay Lucena,
warned the country's public and private media that they must give equal
coverage to the "Yes" and "NO" campaigns for the constitutional referendum to
be held December 2^nd.

In a press conference
from CNE headquarters in Caracas, she explained that between the 1^st
and 26^th of November news and opinion outlets coverage was 59% NO
and 41% Yes.

She reminded the
media that the regulation is clear and demanded responsible dissemination of
information. She rejected criticism of the entity's actions from sectors of the
opposition and affirmed that "those who are [criticizing] appear to be
attempting to set the stage a head of time for disregarding the results."

"The electoral
branch will not accept the coercion of those who try to sew doubt about the
actions of this council," she added.

She announced that
Plan Republic will be taking control of the voting centers beginning Wednesday,
28 November and that the first results bulletin of the December 2^nd referendum
will be released two hours after the polls close.

Translated by Dawn Gable