The Devil's Excrement

Demolishing Report by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual

The
reports of the OAS and the European Union, especially the second, with its meticulous
equilibrium and abundant presentation of concrete cases-without diminishing the
seriousness of the second one-give full backing to our diagnosis: the Venezuelan
electoral system and its ruling body, the CNE, are in intensive care. Because
the task of providing a country with a trustworthy electoral system concerns
all of society and all political actors, one of them, the Government, should pay
attention to what was observed and transmitted by both foreign missions, because the
objections are very serious and they force it to sit down with all actors, political
parties from both the opposition and officialdom, to discuss the design of the
new Electoral Law, as well as the naming of a CNE that deserves respect. Now one
can not say that it is a matter of bad faith of the opposition factions in a “campaign
against the CNE” or of “coupsters” or of “following the instructions of the
empire”, because the international observers were not and could not have been implicated
with any of the parts in the national political scene. Its impartiality can be
counted on. From the Government, the main interested party, should come out a
formal invitation that the Foreign Minister appeared to formulate last Monday.

It is also
obvious, that the necessary redesign of the electoral system forces democratic
parties in the opposition to understand that on these matters a dialogue with
the Government is indispensable. The rules of the electoral game and the new
CNE must be the result of a national agreement and such an agreement can only
come out from a civilized interchange of opinions, around a negotiation table. There
is no other way, because any other thing would suppose unilateral decisions
that would be without any doubt, counterproductive. For democratic parties
compromised with a strategy that goes through elections, the perspective of a
meeting with official representatives must be assumed with a positive spirit. Of
course, such a dialogue would require the creation of scenarios outside of the Parliament,
given that the opposition parties are absent form the National Assembly.

The
country is at a dramatic crossroads. The data point that an extremely
high percentage
of Venezuelans that were in his orbit, not only did not attend the call
that Chávez
himself made during the campaign, but the fact that they did not even
allowed
themselves to be dragged by the powerful logistical apparatus of
Chavez’ MVR
and its allies, forces a deep reflection in the high command of
officialdom. Something
is happening. But, if for the Government the electoral road continues
to be the road, the recovery of the seriousness of the vote can not be
foreign to it, if
it aspires to revive the essence of an electoral process, which is the
competition between opposing factions. For the democratic parties of
the opposition,
on the other hand, the suitability of electoral instruments will be
decisive. Without
that, it will be impossible to compete. To procure it is thus a
priority for
everyone, for both the Government as well as the democratic opposition.

This entry was posted on December 8, 2005 at 12:45 am and is filed under Venezuela.