Election to the Constituent Assembly in Venezuela 2017

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On May 1, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that he would convene a constituent assembly (Asamblea Nacional Constituyente (ANC)) for July 30, 2017 . The background was protests of the population in the context of the protests in Venezuela, in particular the protests for the opening of a humanitarian channel and against the disempowerment of parliament.

Unconstitutionality of the convocation

Article 347 of the Venezuelan Constitution gives only the Venezuelan people the right to convene the Constituent Assembly. Article 348 gives the President the right of initiative to convene meetings. In order not to contradict Article 347, a strict distinction must be made between “convocation” and “right of initiative to convene”. Similar to the way in which the German Bundesrat, with its right of initiative, can submit legislative proposals to the Bundestag in Germany (Article 76, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law), the Venezuelan President can submit a proposal for a constituent assembly to the Venezuelan people under Article 348. Like the Bundestag, the Venezuelan people must therefore be able to reject the proposal. Maduro, on the other hand, implemented a specific proposal of the convocation itself, there were then elections in which, under the conditions of Maduro, various Maduro candidates could be selected. The Venezuelan people never got around to convening the Constituent Assembly. It is as if the Bundesrat, bypassing the Bundestag, with its right of initiative, would decide on a draft law itself and only let the Bundestag determine a few details. These two articles of the Venezuelan Constitution are listed below.

“The people of Venezuela are the bearers of the original constitutional power. In exercising this power, it can convene a constituent national assembly with the aim of reshaping the state, creating a new legal order and drafting a new constitution. "

- Article 347

“The initiative to convene the National Constituent Assembly can be taken by the President of the Republic with the Council of Ministers, by the National Assembly by a resolution passed by a majority of two thirds of its members, the assembled municipal councils with the votes of two thirds of its members; or by fifteen percent of the voters entered in the civil status and electoral register. "

- Article 348

The President's proposal was partly “local” and “sectoral”. This means that some places were reserved for representatives of “municipalities” and “sectors”. The PSUV (Socialist Unity Party of Venezuela) alone decided what a commune and a sector (“fishermen's sector”, “workers' sector”) are , without the unions, e.g. B.). This non-universal and non-proportional approach contradicts Article 63 of the Venezuelan Constitution. The Venezuelan voter, the bearer of the original constitutional power, was not asked about this. I.e. even with a majority of the electorate, the opposition would not have had a majority in the Constituent Assembly since most of its candidates were not in the PSUV. Under the conditions decided by Maduro, it was guaranteed that 364 of the 540 candidates per municipality were nominated, regardless of the number of members of the municipality. Thus, the majority of the opposition was put into perspective, since populous areas in which the opposition has the majority were still only allowed to put up one candidate. The missing 176 candidates should come from sectors of society; H. Government organizations of students, or from government unions, etc. The opposition was practically excluded from these sectors. Under these conditions the opposition could not have achieved a majority in the Constituent Assembly even with an 80% majority in the general population.

The convocation

The election on July 30, 2017 was accompanied by violent riots. Judicial authorities said at least eight people were killed, while the opposition estimated 15 fatalities. The head of the National Electoral Commission, Tibisay Lucena, said that eight million Venezuelans had cast their vote (41.5 percent turnout). A total of around 50,000 people applied for a seat in the Constituent Assembly, of which 6100 candidacies were declared valid. The criteria for admission to the election were set up by Maduro, who rated the election as a "success". The election was viewed by the US as "illegal" and financial sanctions were imposed on the president shortly afterwards, but not sanctions affecting Venezuela's oil sector. Germany and the European Union also criticized the election, while Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua supported Maduro. Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Díaz opened investigations against the government and the electoral authority on suspicion of millions of electoral fraud . She is considered one of the faces of the protests and had also criticized Maduro's plans for a constituent assembly. Smartmatic, the company responsible for voting computers, reported that the difference between the actual votes cast and the official turnout was "at least one million".

Consequences

On August 18, 2017, the opposition-dominated parliament was officially ousted. The pro-government Constituent Assembly adopted a decree giving the body the role of parliament. This means that Parliament no longer has any decision-making power. At the same time, investigations were launched against Julio Borges and Freddy Guevara , President and Vice-President of Parliament. They are accused of resisting President Maduro. Previously, the Congress leadership refused to swear allegiance to the Constituent Assembly. At the beginning of September 2017, the President of the Venezuelan Parliament, Julio Borges , was received by several European heads of government ( Mariano Rajoy , Emmanuel Macron , Angela Merkel and Theresa May ), who promised him support in the peaceful restoration of constitutionality.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dead and injured after riots in Caracas. In: Handelsblatt. April 21, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2017 .
  2. ↑ 6 preguntas para entender el proceso de elección de la Asamblea Constituyente en Venezuela y sus posibles consecuencias. BBC , July 29, 2017, accessed March 5, 2019 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ Mayoría de constituyentes sectoriales serán de groups favorables a Maduro. In: El Nacional. May 25, 2017, Retrieved February 28, 2019 (Spanish).
  4. ↑ Maduro ajusta a su medida las bases comiciales para ganar la Asamblea Constituyente en julio. In: El Mundo. May 24, 2017, Retrieved March 6, 2019 (Spanish).
  5. ↑ Election in Venezuela: US sanctions against the 'dictator' . tagesschau.de; accessed on August 20, 2017
  6. ↑ Venezuela: Public Prosecutor's Office investigates Nicolás Maduro for election fraud. In: Zeit Online . August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017 .
  7. ^ Opposition sidelined: Venezuela's parliament officially disempowered . tagesschau.de; accessed on August 20, 2017.
  8. ↑ Borges y Guevara fueron recibidos por Rajoy en Madrid. In: El Mundo. September 5, 2017, Retrieved September 27, 2017 (Spanish).
  9. ↑ Macron pledges support for the Venezuelan opposition. In: Zeit Online . September 5, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017 .
  10. ^ Conversation between Chancellor Merkel and the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Julio Borges, and the Vice-President of Parliament Freddy Guevara. In: Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. September 6, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017 .
  11. ^ Theresa May and Sir Alan Duncan met with Julio Borges, Leader of the Venezuelan National Assembly, and Antonieta Lopez, mother of imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, today. In: PM statement following meeting with Julio Borges: 7 Sept 2017. 6 September 2017, accessed on 27 September 2017 .