European Union to send November election observation mission to Venezuela

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell will send a technical election observation mission to Venezuela to monitor the regional elections on November 21 from the field.

“In response to an invitation from the National Electoral Council of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, The European Union has decided to deploy an EU Election Observation Mission (EOM) to observe regional and local elections scheduled for November 21, 2021 ″, said the block in a statement.

The head of community diplomacy, who has been negotiating for weeks with the Venezuelan authorities on the terms and conditions for the deployment of observers, gave the green light to the mission after receiving guarantees from Caracas on the access and scope of the mission.

“A unprecedented electoral process, with the consent of the majority of political forces for the first times in recent years, to elect more than 3,000 regional and municipal representatives in Venezuela, ”Borrell said.

The head of European diplomacy defends the need to be present on the ground so that the Venezuelan elections are plural and have minimum democratic conditions. To this end, the EU has already deployed an exploratory mission during the boreal summer to study the feasibility of sending observers by November.

Borrell added that this management may be a important contribution “to support a peaceful solution among Venezuelans to the crisis and a path to credible, inclusive and transparent elections as a result ”.

The EU can thus observe an election in Venezuela for the first time since 2005. Experts will carry out technical control tasks before the vote and observe the November elections, as well as the subsequent process. In other cases, this type of assignment lasted up to three and four months.

Later, in a statement, community diplomacy confirmed that the Portuguese socialist, Isabel Santos will lead the mission, which will consist of a first team of 11 electoral experts who will travel to Caracas in October. Later, 62 more long-term technical observers will be added, plus 30 closer to the election date.

“Under the direction of the Principal Observer, Ms. Santos, a respected parliamentarian and highly experienced election observer, the EU EOM will carry out an independent technical assessment of all aspects of the electoral process and offer recommendations to improve future elections, ”Borrell said.

For its part, Santos stressed that “after years of tensions and polarization, the next elections are a possible important step towards finding a peaceful and democratic solution. to the crisis in Venezuela ”.

In this context, It remains to be seen whether the European Parliament will decide to deploy MEPs. Normally, the European Parliament reinforces technical observation with a delegation who performs follow-up tasks on election day, giving political weight to the mission.

It will be the Support group for democracy and electoral coordination of the European Parliament which studies whether the process is finished and sends parliamentarians to Venezuela, a decision to be confirmed by the Conference of Presidents, a body which brings together the leaders of all the groups represented in the European Parliament.

This requires an agreement of consensus of political parties. So far, the European People’s Party and the Renew liberals have severely criticized any approach from Caracas, so the mission runs the risk of not having any MEPs, apart from the head of mission, who is still a member, in this case Isabel Santos.

In Brussels, they consider that Nicolás Maduro’s government has taken “positive steps” as the most plural composition of the National Electoral Council or a better relationship with humanitarian organizations operating in the country.

Besides, the mission coincides with the advancement of the dialogue process between the government and the opposition opened in mid-August in Mexico and that he had his third round of contacts a few days ago. The two parties assured on Tuesday that they had reconciled their positions.

(With information from EuropaPress, AFP and EFE)

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