Campaign for National Constituent Assembly to Begin July 9

June 8, 2017

The campaign to choose 545 territorial and sectoral members of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC, Spanish acronym) on July 30, will begin on July 9, said the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Tibisay Lucena.

This campaign phase will be held for a period of 19 days, until midnight on Thursday, July 27, Lucena said in a press conference at the headquarters of the Electoral Power, in downtown Caracas.

She said they will use for these elections the number of people registered in the Electoral Roll until April 30, 2017.

She also added that some established deadlines have already been met, such as the registration of applicants, as well as the formal application that began on Tuesday, 6 June and will end this Saturday 10 June. This will give way to the process of admission of the applications, from 11 to 15 June.

Lucena further said that the sectoral registry will be published on 13 June, and can be checked in the site of the CNE. “Those voters, candidates who wish to check in relation to their sector, can do it on the page of the National Electoral Council,” she said.

The Constituent Assembly will be composed of 364 territorial and 181 sectoral constituent members: including indigenous members (8), workers (79), peasants and fishermen (8), entrepreneurs (5), pensioners (28), persons with disabilities (5), students (24), and community councils (24). The election shall be by universal, direct and secret vote.

Likewise, she noted that the request made by President Nicolas Maduro, to submit the new Constitution to a national referendum, was included in the electoral terms.

Electoral terms and conditions

The CNE rector explained that the constituent members representing peasants and fishermen, people with disabilities and entrepreneurs will be elected by national majority vote.

The same will happen with the pensioners sector, which will have 28 members in the ANC: seven for the Capital region (Capital District, Miranda and Vargas states); four for the central region (Carabobo, Aragua and Cojedes states); two for Los Llanos region (Apure, Portuguesa and Guarico states), six for the western region (Falcon, Lara, Zulia and Yaracuy states), four for Los Andes region (Merida, Trujillo, Tachira and Barinas state), one for Guayana region (Bolivar, Amazonas and Delta Amacuro states), one for the Insular region (Nueva Esparta state), three for the northeast region (Anzoategui, Monagas and Sucre states).

As for the student sector, she explained that there will be three members elected by students of private universities, 11 by students of public universities and 10 by students of educational missions.

The members for the communal councils and communes will be one by state, “elected by reason of one constituent member by regional body,” she said.

The workers will elect their 79 representatives in nine subsectors instead of the 14 originally proposed: oil and mining sector (2); the social area, conformed by the guild of science and technology, culture, sports, education, academic, the media and health (12); the trade and banking sector (11); the service sector, which includes public and private service companies (14); building (4); public administration (17); transport (2); and the industrial sector (6).

As for the sector of the popular and independent economy, the CNE president stated that 11 representatives will be elected within this domain, and will include “all those who have no employers, who are self-employed and contribute to social security.”

Concerning the indigenous communities, Lucena stressed that for the election of the eight spokespersons for the Constituent Assembly a total of 3,473 assemblies will be held in the different native communities of the country, and will be made according to their uses, cultures, traditions and customs.

Of the total number, 850 assemblies will be held in the Southern region (Amazonas and Apure states); 1,250 in the Eastern region (Anzoategui, Bolivar, Delta Amacuro, Monagas and Sucre states); and 1,400 in the western region (Merida, Trujillo and Zulia states).

These meetings –considered as the highest instance of deliberation and decision for the exercise of People’s Power in indigenous peoples and communities– began on Monday, June 5 and end on June 30.

The number of indigenous representatives nominated as candidates to the ANC will vary depending on the region in which they live: one for the South region, four for the West region and three for the East region.

http://www.avn.info.ve/node/398673

Source: AVN