CARACAS (Reuters) – In a recent development, Venezuela’s government has stated that it will not permit election observers from the European Union to be involved in the upcoming 2024 presidential elections, as confirmed by a prominent ruling party lawmaker on Thursday.
The highly anticipated contest next year is expected to see President Nicolas Maduro run for re-election, while the opposition plans to hold a primary in October to select a unity candidate.
Criticizing what they perceive as undemocratic conditions for elections, the opposition has long claimed that the government has disqualified several of their top primary candidates from holding public office.
During the regular Thursday session of the government-allied National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, the assembly’s president, explicitly stated, “I tell you Josep Borrell, there won’t be any observation mission from Europe while we are the representatives of the Venezuelan state. They will not come.” Rodriguez was referring to the European Union’s foreign policy chief.
Rodriguez further accused the European Union of violating an agreement signed with the Venezuelan government. He described the observers as “representatives of an archaic, murderous, imperial Europe.”
As of now, the EU’s delegation in Caracas has not issued a response to the situation.
After the country’s regional elections in 2021, an EU observation mission reported that electoral conditions had shown improvement when compared to previous votes. However, the mission emphasized the need for Venezuela to strengthen the separation of powers, particularly the independence of its judicial branch.
In response to the observers’ previous presence, President Maduro, whose 2018 re-election was widely criticized internationally as fraudulent, labeled them as spies.
It is worth noting that the EU had refrained from sending electoral observers to Venezuela since 2006, making their participation in the 2021 elections significant.
Some members of the opposition expressed their disapproval of the presence of EU observers, arguing that their participation implicitly legitimized the elections.
The reporting team includes Mayela Armas and Vivian Sequera, with writing contributions from Julia Symmes Cobb and Oliver Griffin. The editing has been undertaken by Sandra Maler.
Credit: The Star : News Feed
