(24 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Caracas, Miranda, Venezuela – 24 July 2024
1. Various members of the opposition bloc of the Unitary Platform, at briefing room
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Delsa Solorzano, opposition member and representative of the Democratic Unity Party:
“We have just been informed, at this moment… and we have been able to verify that this is the case: a button has just been opened to print identifications. This is a citizen achievement and an achievement of this campaign and for all of us. We have achieved it, I repeat, thanks for the pressure we have created from Unitary Platform and the party Democratic Unity we represent at the National Electoral Council.”
3. Reporters and cameras in briefing
4. Solórzano talking to journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Delsa Solorzano, opposition member and representative of the Democratic Unity Party:
“The system should have confirmed immediately after the information from the observers was loaded into the system. But this didn’t happen. Days passed from the moment the observers were registered, to the moment their approval was shown. This was another obstacle we had to overcome. After the approval banner appeared, then there was the issue of the ID’s. Up until today, the National Electoral Council had not placed an option to batch-print all the IDs. Imagine how difficult it is to accredit the huge amount of observers we have for this electoral process."
6. Solorzano speaking to journalists
7. Adriana Pichardo, member of the opposition, National Leader of the Popular Will party
8. Various members of the opposition bloc at the end of briefing and leaving
STORYLINE:
The Venezuelan opposition coalition Wednesday announced they successfully registered their electoral observers for Sunday’s presidential election.
Delsa Solorzano, a member of the Democratic Unity party and a representative of the wider Unitary Platform, described it as a process that otherwise could have been done "immediately."
Since the electoral process began, the opposition has reported multiple obstacles to their campaign, including the banning of their main candidate to run for office, as well as the arrest of 72 of their members.
Solorzano considered the delays by the authorities yet as "another obstacle" for the opposition.
"We have achieved it, I repeat, thanks for the pressure we have created from Unitary Platform and the party Democratic Unity we represent at the National Electoral Council."
She also said the timeline to print all the identifications needed could present more difficulties for the opposition’s Unitary Platform.
The opposition forecasts that 90,000 observers take part in the 30,026 polling stations that will be set throughout Venezuela on July 28.
Edmundo Gonzalez, a 74-year-old former diplomat, was elected as standard bearer of the coalition last March after the Comptroller General’s Office disqualified opposition leader Maria Corina Machado from holding public office for fifteen years.
In Venezuela, political disqualification is an accessory penalty that applies when there is a final judicial sentence for a punishable act when it is determined that a person incurred in abuse of power, among other cases provided for in local laws.
But these legal precepts were not complied with in Machado’s case.
Machado, who is still rallying alongside González, had already denounced to international observers the difficulties that the coalition faces to accredit their representatives.
AP Video by Andry Rincon
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