Some people in the ruling party seem to have read the work of Roman poet Ovid, who laid the foundations for what we know as “self-fulfilling prophecies” through his story of King Pygmalion, a sculptor who refused to fall in love with a woman that was not perfect. At least, this is the impression left by the surprising resignation of the chief of the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the subsequent announcement by the National Assembly (AN) of a new process to select new members for the electoral body.

“Seeing Venezuela ultimately heading toward economic prosperity and the political and social stability from which we were illegally diverted depends largely on the commitment and vocation of the entire country. Seeking to contribute to this noble objective, we the signatories of this declaration step down from our positions to enable the National Assembly, in its role of the Legislative Power constitutionally empowered to designate a new National Electoral Council that reflects the consensus and aspirations of the democratic sectors of the Venezuelan people.”

This was the scanty reason given by the two main rectors and the six deputies linked to Chavismo for leaving their positions on June 15.

However, the explanations provided by the departing chairman of the CNE, Pedro Calzadilla, seem like unfounded excuses. Since the beginning of the year, senior officials had been raising the possibility of replacing the current electoral body, which had been considered the least unfair in terms of its composition, both at home and abroad.

In January, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, stated that:

“In the round of conversations that President Maduro undertook with different sectors of the opposition, in private meetings that were held with representatives of the Unitary Platform, in some of these conversations, in not a few of them, the proposal for the formation of a new National Electoral Council (CNE) was raised. This National Assembly, given that we participate in all these dialogue processes, will calmly and attentively consider these opposition proposals.”

Provoking an institutional crisis

Rodríguez’s words had no basis in light of Article 296 of the 1999 Constitution, which clearly states that “the members of the National Electoral Council will hold a term of seven years in functions.” The National Assembly could at most fill the vacancy left by the appointment of rector Tania D’Amelio as magistrate of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice in April 2022.

Article 32 of the Organic Law on the Electoral Power only allows the members of the National Assembly to remove a CNE rector under four grounds:

“[The rector] is subject to interdiction or political disqualification; directly or indirectly joins an organization with political ends; directly or indirectly received benefits from a person or organization that compromise their independence, or has been convicted for the commission of intentional crimes or has been declared administratively responsible by decision of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic”.

However, the wave of resignations in recent days has given the National Assembly the perfect excuse to appoint a new electoral body, a measure that seems destined to torpedo the October opposition primaries, whose promoters had requested technical assistance from the CNE a couple of weeks before.

The resignation of Mr. Calzadilla and the pro-government rectors was followed on June 19 and 20 by the demission of rector and expert on electoral issues Roberto Picón and Enrique Márquez, the board’s deputy chairman.

Mr.  Picón released a statement on Twitter:

“After extensive consultation with the factors that supported our participation in the National Electoral Council, I have decided to step down from my position as Rector. I do not intend to validate a situation that is clearly irregular but to facilitate a process that must be conducted with transparency by the National Assembly.”

Mr. Márquez spoke in similar terms, reinforcing the thesis according to which the ruling party imploded the body [through the resignation of the pro-government rectors] given that the remaining members of the board could not guarantee the body’s operation (Article 14 of the Organic Law on the Electoral Power mandates a minimum of 3 rectors for any decision).

A brand-new CNE?

Despite the cascade of resignations, the body cannot be considered to be totally headless given that the deputy rectors León Arismendi, Griselda Colina and Conrado Pérez have not announced whether they will step down. In this case, the National Assembly cannot declare their positions vacant.

Given this situation, the Assembly’s decision to designate a Preliminary Commission of the Electoral Nominations Committee and thus start the process to appoint a CNE board from scratch does not seem to comply with the provisions of the Constitution or the law. The composition of the new Preliminary Commission was announced in the Official Gazette No. 42,652 on June 16, with nine of the eleven members having been part of the Commission selected in January 2021.

Article 12 of the Organic Law on the Electoral Power clearly states that

“Whenever the position of CNE rector or deputy rector has been declared vacant, the National Assembly will designate new members from a list presented by the Nominations Committee, taking into consideration the corresponding order of each nomination”.

In other words, the members of the National Assembly should not convene a new appointment process; they should rather study the list they submitted in March 2021 by the previous Electoral Nominations Committee with 75 candidates and select the new board members in replacement of the resigning officials from the list.

How does it affect Venezuelans?

Everything seems to indicate that the government is once again preparing a custom-made presidential election in utter contempt of the Constitution by failing to recognize the rights of the deputy rectors who have not stepped down to continue performing their duties and by making it difficult for its opponents to organize for the electoral process.

The Government of Nicolás Maduro also seems to acknowledge that it was not comfortable with the former electoral council and the body’s performance during the 2021 regional and local elections, despite being unable to ensure the fairness of the process as stated by the European Union Election Observation Mission.

Translated by José Rafael Medina