All Venezuelans—and the
international community—can witness through the media the notable increase in
the frequency and duration of the mandatory official radio and television
broadcasts when the beginning of an electoral campaign is approaching.
Government authorities
have the obligation to watch over and guarantee impartiality and equality in
electoral processes as prescribed by Article 293 of the Constitution of the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which establishes that “Government
authorities shall guarantee the equality, reliability, impartiality,
transparency and efficiency of electoral processes.” Nevertheless, Venezuelans
commonly observe that such equality does not exist, and that the political
actors disregard, among others: Article 145 of the Constitution, which
indicates that public servants are at the service of the Nation and not of any
partisan interests; the Law against Corruption, Article 13 of which prohibits
public servants from earmarking public assets for partisan purposes of any
kind; and Article 6 of the Electoral Processes Act, which states that public
servants “may not, in the performance of their public duties, act based on
their political preferences or to the detriment of any political organization.”
In the Special
Regulations on the Election Campaign for the October 7 Presidential Election,
which will regulate the campaign activities of presidential candidates from 6:00
a.m. on July 1 to midnight on October 4, the National Electoral Council (CNE) provided
that each candidate will be able to place campaign advertisements on each
national or regional television station and cable TV channel for a maximum
period of three minutes per day, while national and regional radio stations
will be able to broadcast messages for a maximum of four minutes per day; these
time periods may not be accumulated.
Failing to observe
these limits or using State assets and resources for partisan purposes distorts
the equality and transparency of the elections.