- To vote in the southern country, citizens must bring a valid or expired Venezuelan ID card
On July 28, Venezuelans inside and outside the country will elect the president of the Republic who will govern in the period 2025-2031. A total of 69,189 citizens of the more than seven million who are abroad will be able to vote in these elections.
According to Marcos Gazón, a member of the Grand Alliance for the Birth of the Command with Venezuela in Chile, only 2,659 Venezuelan migrants in the southern country are eligible to exercise their right to vote.
He explained that 2,000 of the voters were already registered with the National Electoral Council (CNE) until 2018, while 14 were new registrations and 659 are people who managed to update their data during the process that took place between March 18 and April 16, 2024.
How many Venezuelans are there in Chile?
According to the National Statistics Institute of Chile, there are 532,715 people of Venezuelan nationality in the country. This figure does not include people who entered through unauthorized crossings.
However, on April 24, the Chilean ambassador to Venezuela, Jaime Gazmuri, said that approximately 800,000 Venezuelans live in Chile, which represents 4% of the total population of the southern nation (20 million).
Garzón explained that the voting in Chile will take place at the Venezuelan Embassy, located at Bustos 2021 in Providencia, in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago.
He recalled that voting abroad is done manually and citizens must write an X in the oval of their candidate. He also specified that in order to vote, citizens must present their Venezuelan identity card, whether valid or expired.
In an interview for The newspaper, Garzón mentioned that on election day they expect Venezuelans residing in various regions of the southern country, such as Valparaíso, Iquique and Concepción, to arrive at the Embassy.
He indicated that on election day the diplomatic headquarters will set up five voting tables that will be distributed by ID card terminals. However, he specified that the order in which the voters will be distributed will be known on election day.
The Organic Law of Electoral Processes of the CNE in Venezuela establishes that those who represent the CNE and the entire organizational apparatus (of the elections) falls on the consular officials. They will be there directing the election process, but there is a liaison commission from both parties where table witnesses will be accredited from Caracas. (On July 6) the training processes began in Chile for around 25 witnesses who will defend the votes,” Garzón stressed.
The activist recommended that citizens check their data in the Electoral Registry to confirm that they are eligible to vote on July 28, arrive at the Embassy early on election day and bring the necessary documentation to be able to complete the process.
Venezuelans in Chile who will not be able to vote
Marcos Garzón condemned the fact that many Venezuelans living in Chile will not be able to exercise their right to vote on July 28, due to several factors, such as the requirements requested by the CNE for the Electoral Registry.
He recalled that 31,000 people participated in the opposition primary elections in October 2023 in Chile alone. A high number compared to the more than 2,000 who will be able to participate in the presidential elections.
“One of the requirements was to have permanent residency in the country. As we know, immigration procedures in Chile are very slow and many of our Venezuelan brothers did not have permanent residency. But they also required a valid Venezuelan passport, which is expensive and it is difficult to get an appointment,” said the activist.
Permanent Residence.
This is a visa granted by the Ministry of the Interior that allows foreigners to live and work indefinitely in Chile. This document must be renewed every five years.
He complained that the electoral registration process in Chile, as reported in other countries, was slow. He said that only 30 people were able to register or update their data per day.
“We lost the days of Holy Week, the Fridays (…) there were many limitations that we had to overcome. It’s not that people don’t want to vote,” he said.
Previous complaints regarding lack of information for the elections
On June 28, the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Alliance for Venezuela and Electoral Transparency denounced the Lack of official information on how Venezuelans abroad will vote in the presidential elections on July 28.
“It is not possible that with only 30 days left until the election, we still do not know how this process will be abroad, how many tables will be set up in the Buenos Aires consulate or at what time voting will open. There has also been no information campaign to promote participation and to teach citizens how to vote correctly,” questioned Charbel Najm, vice president of Alianza por Venezuela.
For his part, Jesús Delgado Valery, executive director of Electoral Transparency, said that, in his opinion, the electoral process “has been marked by opacity and lack of information.”
“Not only has the registration and updating of data of residents abroad been hindered, but one month before the election there is no information on how the deployment will be to guarantee the vote of the more than two thousand Venezuelans eligible to vote in Argentina,” he said.
On May 31, the non-governmental organization Mi Voto Cuenta revealed in a report that of the more than 7.7 million Venezuelans living abroad, only 6,528 people managed to register or update their data in the Electoral Registry (RE).
“We have witnessed one of the largest, premeditated and systematic processes of massive violation of the rights of Venezuelans abroad. In this process, misinformation and negligence on the part of the consular offices administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (of Venezuela) have prevailed,” the organization stated in the document.
According to the NGO’s data, Spain was the country where the most Venezuelans managed to register or update their data in the Electoral Registry, with a total of 1,829 citizens. It is followed by Mexico (768), Chile (607), Panama (450), Argentina (440), Ecuador (387), Colombia (273), Peru (66), Uruguay (37) and the Dominican Republic (18).
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2024-07-09 12:20:38
