Venezuela’s electoral reforms will be ready before December 15, says the president of the Assembly

( Spanish) – The president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, said this Wednesday that the reforms to the country’s electoral laws will be ready before the end of the current legislative period, on December 15.

Rodríguez, one of the men closest to President Nicolás Maduro, told the media that the National Assembly, where the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is the majority, has received “hundreds and hundreds of pages” with proposals from the parties and who are analyzing them.

On October 2, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), which brings together the majority opposition, rejected Rodríguez’s call to discuss changes in the matter, arguing that they consider it “a propaganda exercise.”

Among the points that the ruling party considers necessary to include in the legislation are prohibiting people who are considered “fascists” from being candidates and also prohibiting foreign bodies from giving their opinion on the Venezuelan electoral processes. Some analysts consider that the latter would further limit the possibility of electoral observation in the South American country.

Rodríguez and other figures from the ruling party proposed reforming the country’s electoral laws after the presidential elections on July 28, in which the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Maduro the winner. The PUD is unaware of these results and affirms that the real winner was its candidate, Edmundo González.

Since the CNE proclaimed Maduro the winner, a part of the international community questions the results and requests that the electoral records broken down by voting station be published.