Maduro urges calm as Venezuelans jam stores again

[spanza]

78. CARTER CENTER warns about unfairness of Venezuelan elections

Originally in Spanish, translated to English by another DUer

Jimmy Carter once praised the Venezuelan electoral system as "the best in the world", which has been repeated numerous times by Hugo Chávez and now his successor, Nicolás Maduro. Nevertheless, in the last few years, the Carter Center organization has been backing more the accusations brought by the opposition.

The director of the program in the Americas for the Carter Center, Jennifer McCoy, alerted today that in the electoral procedures which have transpired in the last few years in Venezuela, there has been a surge of "ventajismo" (advantage-ism?) as a factor of accusations due to the use of public resources by the Chavista candidates.

McCoy commented that since the years 2005 and 2006, the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) initiated a phase of consultations with political parties, and that there has been more participation in audits of the system since then, which has generated more confidence from public opinion regarding the automated mechanized voting method.

However, "in the most recent years (...) the subject of ventajismo has risen," said the representative for the Carter Center when referring to the claims made by the opposition in the last few elections regarding the use of public resources, including state-owned media, in Chavista campaigns.

"We have seen that the confidence of Venezuela (in the electoral system) has many ups and downs", said McCoy during a video conference which she offered in the Congreso Internacional Buenas Prácticas Electorales para el Fortalecimiento de la Democracia, which took place in the Catholic University of Andrés Bello (UCAB), one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the country.

This past July the Carter Center sent out a preliminary report regarding April's last presidential elections in which they recommended to guarantee in the future more equity in the campaigns and to explain clearly the norms which regulate the participation of public servants in them.

The report found "a series of inequities in the conditions of the Chavista campaign, both regarding the access to financial resources as well as access to communication mediums." The Venezuelan opposition has criticized many times the indiscreet use of public funding for the financing of Chavista campaigns.

http://www.infobae.com/2013/11/05/1521518-el-centro-carter-alerta-el-ventajismo-las-elecciones-venezolanas