Venezuela: start of the deployment of the European electoral mission

Observers for the European Union electoral mission, the first in 15 years in Venezuela, began deploying on Thursday, the official start of the campaign for the regional and municipal elections on 21 November.

said the head of the mission, Portuguese MEP Isabel Santos, welcoming the departure of around forty observers from Caracas to other regions of the country.

Read also Venezuela: a Carter Center mission for regional elections

"We will observe the entire process, electoral campaign, organization, voting, counting, complaints if there are any (...) We will then produce a report,"

she added. The

in the event of a problem, in accordance with the usual rules for European or UN observation missions, Isabel Santos recalled. The observers will settle in 23 of the 24 states of Venezuela (the exception being the Amazon). On November 18, 34

observers

will join the mission, which will include a total of over 100 members.

, she replied to the press,in the context of recent tensions between the EU and Caracas.

In early October, the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Pedro Calzadilla, minister under the presidencies of Hugo Chavez (1999-2013) and Nicolas Maduro, demanded an apology from the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell. The latter believed that it would be the mission that would

the regional and municipal elections. The Carter Foundation and the UN will also send small teams of

Venezuela has often been reluctant to welcome electoral observers and the EU had unsuccessfully requested the presence of a mission for the legislative elections of December 2020. This election had been boycotted by the opposition and the government had won an overwhelming victory . The Chavista government of President Nicolas Maduro, which would like to see international economic sanctions against his country lifted, has been engaged since August in a dialogue with the opposition.

For their part, the main opposition parties have broken with their boycott strategy of recent years - presidential in 2018 and legislative in 2020 - in particular to join the CNE.

Among the problems that observers will have to overcome: the pandemic, insecurity in a country with rampant crime and logistics with a recurring shortage of gasoline inside Venezuela.

Lukasz Firmanty, a Polish observer leaving for the state of Carabobo (north-central) told AFP.