Carlos ‘Chaco’ Alvarez, the head of a UNASUR mission to Caracas that will oversee the coming election, yesterday declared his support for the Venezuelan electoral system.
Upon arrival in Venezuela’s capital city, ahead of the October 7th election, Alvarez announced “Venezuela has one of the most advanced and reliable electoral systems from the region and the continent”.
The ex–vice president of Argentina also noted that the voting method has “great transparency” and can be monitored in a variety of different ways. The South American country employs a touch-screen finger print voting system that stores votes both electronically and physically, ensuring maximum protection against corruption.
Alvarez’s team are due to meet with the campaign managers of the two presidential candidates, the current president Hugo Chavez and the leader of the opposition Henrique Capriles Radonski. Chavez is seeking re-election for his third consecutive mandate.
The UNASUR delegation includes electoral experts from Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana and Peru, and Alvarez describes their mission as not “controlling or monitoring the election” but rather accumulating “the best practices of the electoral systems of our countries”. Venezuela will officially recognise the UNASUR officials as “international observers”.
Alvarez’s vote of confidence for the Venezuelan system comes just four days after former United States President Jimmy Carter voiced similar praise. In a statement made at the annual Conversations at the Carter Centre series, Carter said “I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world”.
Over 19 million Venezuelans are entitled to participate in the October election. Latest opinion polls indicate that 57.2% of the population will vote in favour of Chavez.
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