What happens to opposition witnesses and their credentials for the presidential elections?

• Leaders denounced obstacles in the accreditation of witnesses for the elections of July 28

After several days of complaints to be able to carry out the accreditation of table witnesses in the National Electoral Council (CNE) system, the candidate for the presidential elections Edmundo González reported that they managed to obtain the credentials of all the witnesses for the elections of July 28.

“Thanks to our volunteers, we have managed to obtain the credentials of all the witnesses who will be at the 30,026 polling stations across the country. A big hug to all the witnesses and polling station members,” González said through his X account on July 24.

Thanks to our volunteers, we have managed to obtain the credentials of all the witnesses who will be at the 30,026 polling stations across the country.

A big hug to all the witnesses and members of the polling station.

Venezuela is counting on you. #We will win

— Edmundo Gonzalez (@EdmundoGU) July 24, 2024

CNE had committed to resolve the lack of accreditation

Delsa Solórzano, president of the Encuentro Ciudadano party and main witness before the National Electoral Board (JNE), reported on the morning of July 24 that the CNE had committed to resolve the lack of accreditation of witnesses from the Democratic Unity Roundtable.

He also announced that the electoral body had allowed the presence of one of the best electoral technicians to observe the loading of results and errors in the procedure.

The former candidate for the primaries said that 99.5% of the witnesses who will be watching over the votes were already loaded into the CNE system.

Complaints about obstacles in accreditation

Venezuelan opposition political leaders have repeatedly denounced the existence of obstacles to the validation and accreditation of polling station witnesses, necessary for the presidential elections scheduled for July 28.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado denounced from Zulia state on July 23 that Nicolas Maduro’s government, through the CNE, intended to prevent witnesses from having their accreditations to be able to do their work in the process, which begins on Friday, July 26 with the installation of the tables.

At that time, she stated that the CNE system did not allow mass accreditation. In this regard, Machado questioned: What does it mean to have an election where a candidate cannot have his witnesses at the table?

He recalled that the problem in the system was detected on Thursday, July 18, and reported to international observers.

It is time for public opinion and Venezuelans to exert all the pressure because it is our right to be there and ensure that the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans who are going to vote for Edmundo González can defend each vote,” he added.

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Pressure on the CNE

Delsa Solórzano reported that since Thursday, July 18, they had sent communications to the CNE with the complaints, but they had not even managed to get the stamp of receipt on the letters left in the electoral body’s mail box.

“We have been presented with enormous difficulties and we have duly denounced all of them. I must also comment that we have been requesting a meeting with the rectors that has not taken place up to this moment, they have not even given us a date and we have requested in writing that the issue of the accreditation of witnesses be resolved as soon as possible,” Solórzano said in a statement. live via her Instagram account on July 23.

The lawyer warned that the Constitution is being violated due to the lack of a timely response, as well as the political rights of the organization that is nominating a candidate in an electoral process.

“It has not been possible to make progress in accrediting witnesses because it seems that the system is designed to slow down the process,” he added.

Accreditations abroad

The leader of the opposition party Primero Justicia (PJ), Juan Carlos Caldera, reported on July 16 that the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) officially accredited 100% of the electoral witnesses at the voting centers located abroad.

“We want to inform the people of Venezuela that yesterday (July 15) at night the accreditation of witnesses of the unit in the centers abroad was 100% completed, as was the accreditation of the unit in the penitentiary centers,” Caldera said.

Delays in mass accreditation

Juan Carlos Caldera, also appointed by the PUD as a substitute witness to the JNE, stressed that there were “many problems” with the mass accreditation of credentials for almost 100 thousand witnesses.

He said that the system even gives errors with witnesses whose data is already loaded but the platform shows that they do not exist. “The call is for this situation to be corrected, there is no reason or justification for it not to be corrected immediately,” he said.

In light of the obstacles, Caldera said that they are uploading the data manually, one by one, which causes more delays because there are 6,000 credentials involved.

For his part, Perkins Rocha, who was also a substitute witness before the JNE, called on the CNE rectors to address the opposition’s demands and adopt solutions to guarantee the transparency of the electoral process.

The political party La Causa R stated through its X account that there is no July 28 without witnesses, and that no one would accept an election without its observers.

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