The irregularities in the 2020 parliamentary elections involve so many aspects and are so diverse that it took 56 pages divided into 9 chapters to document them. In the pre-election report, 8 civil society organizations detail each angle of an electoral process that the general director of the Global Observatory on Communication and Democracy describes as a “milestone” in the destruction of the electoral institutions. Griselda Colina was in charge of the editorial coordination of the report presented a few days before the elections. She has focused on electoral issues since 2000 when she worked as a consultant at the Carter Center. She joined the Observatory in 2015 in the framework of parliamentary elections; During her tenure, the Citizen Electoral Network was created in alliance with the NGO Cepaz and Voto Joven in response to the need for citizens to know their electoral rights and understand how to demand, defend and document them, as well as the Venezuela Documenta platform, created to document human rights violations

—Why bringing together several organizations to prepare a report on the 2020 parliamentary elections?

—It is an articulated effort that allows each of the organizations to contribute the best of their expertise to advance in the analysis of a situation as complex as the one we were facing. In June 2020, we began to hold follow-up meetings with civil society organizations, including electoral observation, groups that follow-up on judicial issues, human rights defenders, and several groups of activists. You have to do this to be able to understand such a complex process that no organization can undertake on its own; we needed to join efforts to make an accurate analysis from various angles because we realized that we needed that assistance of other organizations and that helped us to find out what each of them was doing regarding the electoral issue.

—Is it the first time that a joint report of this magnitude has been made in the country?

—Both the Global Observatory on Communication and Democracy and several of the organizations that participated had prepared electoral reports before, but I think it is the first time that we have met to analyze more than technical issues because there are so many irregularities regarding the 2020 parliamentary elections that it cannot be evaluated under the criteria of a regular process electoral as was customary. What happened this time had not been seen before, because although we have a super-irregular situation regarding elections since 2015, with serious violations of political rights in the framework of electoral events that we timely denounced after finding patterns that aimed at weakening the vote as an instrument of change and discourage citizen participation and trust, a new red line was crossed in this electoral process.

As early as 2017 we warned that a red line was crossed with the elections for the National Constituent Assembly because the National Electoral Council (CNE) failed to publish the results, altered the numbers, created a tailor-made electoral register, did not allow the name of candidates in the ballots, etc. But the 2020 election was even worse than the 2018 presidential elections. Changes were made in the laws and the electoral system; a new automated voting system was introduced of which, even after the 2020 elections, nothing is known… These are situations that do not allow evaluating the elections as a regular process.

—How do these irregularities affect the exercise of the vote?

—One of the things we have seen is a decrease in participation and trust in the vote as an instrument of change was lost. Unfortunately, December 6 was a sad Sunday in the country because Venezuelans have the tradition of voting. However, we must recognize that the 2020 parliamentary elections were a lost opportunity to advance in the reinstitutionalization of the country, because when we see that the serious crisis that Venezuela is experiencing has an origin in the institutional collapse of the state, one of the ways to move forward – albeit not the only one because elections are not a panacea – is re-institutionalization through elections, and the election of Parliament represented a relevant opportunity for the actors to agree on the organization of the process. Unfortunately, that was cut short.

Faced with this, organized civil society must help citizens understand that participation goes beyond voting, that if we want to recover electoral spaces we must choose the actors who represent our aspirations for change, but also we have to demand the electoral conditions and fight for them. One of the outcomes of this joint work was the reactivation of volunteer witnessing in 21 states of the country on the day of the election,

—But to fight for conditions, we also need the State to respect the citizens and political actors who demand their rights. We do not currently count on that.

—That is right. After the 2020 elections, we are worse off than in 2018, and I think it is important to understand that before we talked about technical conditions, political conditions and citizen conditions, but now it is so complex… What happens now to a Parliament that is not recognized by anyone?!, and the other Parliament, the one that we all recognize, has already exhausted its mandate, so we do not have that institutional framework. This will force citizens to rethink and take a different perspective on a negotiated solution because that will allow us, among other things, to rebuild the electoral route in which the rights of citizens and political actors have to be present. Not like in the 2020 elections where political pluralism was absent and many other political rights were violated.

—What implications does it have for democracy the increasing violation of political rights, both the rights of the political actors who were left out of the game and the rights of citizens who we did not have a real opportunity to choose?

—Well, one effect must be the awareness of our role of demanding that the institutions, or whatever remains of them, act legitimately and under the law, and that they respond to the citizens, under the understanding that we are facing a regime that is not democratic and that we are going to fight for democracy. Each of the events that will take place between 2021 and 2024 will offer an opportunity to recover that electoral route. The situation is so complex and the conditions were so severely affected that we cannot believe that it will be solved in six months or a year. This is a long-term job that requires a constant, bold and strong commitment to achieving the conditions, also seeing that a small opportunity has opened for international observation, because for the first time the ruling power recognizes that it needs the institutional normality that it lacks, and thus invited the United Nations and the European Union to conduct the international observation. That had not happened before, and you have to take advantage of it.

—But civil society no longer even trusts the word “agreement”, much less in the possibility of a rapprochement between the parties

—When I speak of an agreement, it must be a framework agreement between the true decision-makers who have the capacity to understand that the political actors must be prepared for a process that begins with the appointment of a new CNE in 2021, continues with the regional elections and pass through the re-legitimation of the political parties. We should avoid being caught off guard and decide once again not to participate because the authoritarian regime does not allow proper conditions. Of course, it is not going to allow them, but we have to take them from it! You have to fight and take that path, you have to force it, demand it and document what they are doing.

—However, some analysts believe that the increase of violations and irregularities of the 2020 elections sought not only to hinder election day but all the electoral processes in the future and annihilating the will to go to the polls and the interest of the people in participating in elections.

—Absolutely, and it is premeditated. The decision was made based on the results of the 2015 parliamentary elections. Until that year we could have elections in regular conditions, there was unfairness but we had the opportunity to file complaints and claims about irregular situations and violations of rights. This came to an end when Chavismo realized that it had lost the popular vote, then they began to design a system to annihilate the vote as an instrument of change

This is precisely what has happened in the last five years, they accentuated, aggravated and deepened the debacle and the undermining of political rights in the frame of electoral processes. This will not be fixed in two days and it will not be an easy situation, but if the political actors do not commit to it, the road will be much longer.

—Some people affirm that the 2020 parliamentary elections dealt the last blow to what was left of democratic institutions in the country. Do you agree with that assessment?

—I think that democracy was already very weakened; in practice, Venezuelans are not living in a democracy. Certainly, the 2020 parliamentary elections marked a decisive milestone in the future of electoral processes, but that shows us that our vote is the only tool we have, the power in the hands of those of us who believe in a peaceful, democratic and electoral solution. We have to work for a necessary reconstruction, demand political actors to think of citizens and work on a narrative that explains the truth to the people and presents the real options for change.

Translated by José Rafael Medina