Venezuela's National Electoral Council calls for parliamentary elections on December 6

"The entire country is called upon for the electoral process to elect the National Assembly for the period 2021-2026 on December 6, 2020". With these words, the president of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela (CNE), Indira Alfonzo, announced that elections would be held this year, despite the criticism received from the international community and just one day after the unanimous approval of the rules for these elections and the increase to 277 the number of deputies eligible to be elected to the National Assembly.  This new regulation increases by 66 percent the number of positions to be elected in this Assembly, from 167 deputies to 277, "to achieve a balance in the electoral system". 

"110 more deputies will be elected, reinforcing proportional election and election by nominal vote. With these regulations we are making significant progress in responding to the demands of the Venezuelan people for parliamentary elections in line with the realities of the country," said the president of the highest electoral authority, who was appointed last month by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).  The president of Venezuela has welcomed this decision. "It is an election that will count on the active participation of the People's Power, informing the people, choosing the best candidates and exercising direct democracy, every day," he said. 

During the presentation of this reform, Indira Alfonzo announced that 28 national organizations, 6 indigenous peoples and communities organizations and 52 regional parties will participate in the next elections.  "I welcome and applaud the announcements made by the Electoral Power. The number of parliamentarians to be elected has been increased to 277 and the 87 electoral circuits have been maintained. Good news! We are on our way to the constitutional and obligatory parliamentary elections", stated Nicolás Maduro through the social network Twitter. "We are working for pluralism and democracy for the female parliamentarians," said the president of the CNE who stressed that this body "is exercising its functions with full independence and without any limitations other than those imposed by the Constitution and the law". 

During her speech, the rector detailed how the schedule would be "approved unanimously". Thus, from 13 to 26 July the electoral registration process will take place; while the selection of members of subordinate electoral bodies will be on Thursday 23 July, as reported this Wednesday by the Infobae agency. Subsequently, from August 10 to 19, the nomination will be presented and fifteen audits of the electoral system will be held. In the final stretch before the elections, a simulation will be carried out - specifically on October 11 - which will give the starting signal for the campaign that will take place from November 21 to December 5. 

The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly and leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, has used the social network Twitter to announce that he will not participate in these elections. "We Venezuelans do not recognize a farce, as we did not in May 2018. The right to choose has been our struggle. We chose to live with dignity and in democracy, not impositions," he said.  

"Great exercise of arrogance by the dictatorship to believe that it will still be there in 6 months, great exercise of arrogance to believe that this is a sustainable situation simply because of a farce called. Without a doubt, we all want to go to vote with conditions and here I reiterate and ratify it as I have always said: no one is going to lend themselves to a farce, no one is going to validate or ratify a dictatorship when there are no elements of conviction that it is a real mechanism for disputing power," said Guaidó after the announcement by the CNE.

As for the changes in the electoral process, he indicated that from the opposition "we are fighting to achieve conditions that allow us to rescue the right to vote and turn it into an instrument of change. The dictatorship will not give anything away; we must fight together to conquer our democracy. We are not going to lend ourselves to farces". The main leader of the opposition has referred with these declarations to the elections held in May 2018, criticized for the lack of transparency and the low participation. 

After the presidential elections held in 2013, Nicolas Maduro, the candidate chosen by Hugo Chávez, won over his opponent Henrique Capriles. Two years later, the opposition organized around the Democratic Unity Table (MUD) won the parliamentary elections with a large majority, allowing them to take over two thirds of the Assembly.

Thus, if until 2015, the power was assumed in almost its entirety by the party of Chavez and Maduro; from the elections of that year the monopoly is broken by the current president and power began to be shared between the Presidency and the Assembly. On January 10, 2019, Venezuela's political crisis worsened after Maduro decided to begin a second six-year term; a term that was not recognized by either the opposition or a large part of the international community, who considered the elections held on May 20, 2018 "a fraud". 

Faced with this situation, the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, proclaimed himself "interim president of Venezuela", with the aim of "ceasing the usurpation, creating a transitional government and holding free elections". Since then, the confrontation between the two institutions has worsened the economic, political and social crisis that is punishing the Bolivarian nation, given that the National Assembly, the seat of legislative power, is the only institution controlled by the president's opposition.  The opposition believed in 2015 that the only solution to this situation was the departure of Nicolás Maduro. However, the Venezuelan reality is much more complex and depends on the management of the triple crisis that the country is suffering at the moment.