Venezuelan Vote Marred by Government Interference: Carter Center
(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's recent elections were marked by unfairness and political repression, but in a positive change from recent years, they did allow greater participation for the opposition, Jimmy Carter's Carter Center wrote in a report.
While the opposition got more votes, the ruling party won most of the available positions amid low turnout and voter apathy following years of economic decline under President Nicolas Maduro and his ruling PSUV party. Concessions to the opposition allowed it greater representation at this vote, but the background of political repression and restrictions on freedom of expression and participation created an uneven playing field, the Carter Center wrote in its preliminary report.
The election itself was marred by interference from the country's top court -- or TSJ from its initials in Spanish -- and the General Accountability Office, which included “the barring of many key opposition candidates, and the TSJ's arbitrary replacement of the executive committees of opposition parties and Chavista dissidents,” according to the report. “There was also a general atmosphere of political repression, and more than 250 people are being held as political prisoners.”
Maduro's Party Dominates in Venezuela Vote Marked by Low Turnout
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the elections “flawed,” citing arbitrary arrests, the harassment of politicians and bans on candidates. The European Union's mission struck a more neutral tone, though fell short of calling the vote fair. An election monitoring team from the EU is leaving Venezuela earlier than scheduled, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. A spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed the observers will leave the country early, but said they are not being expelled, El Espanol reported.
The top court, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, ordered a rerun of the gubernatorial election in Barinas, birthplace of late President Hugo Chavez and his family's political stronghold, after the opposition went into the lead. That “is a worrying sign and part of a pattern of intervention by the court, which undermines Venezuela's obligation to conduct genuinely democratic elections.”
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
