August 22

Members of the ruling party take poll centers in mock ballot
A mock ballot was carried out in Venezuela on August 22, ahead of parliamentary elections to be held on September 26. However, the simulated vote gave the impression that it was related to the internal elections of the ruling party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) because there were a lot of PSUV logotypes on hats and shirts of electors and voting officials. Often, people related to the ruling party shouted: Oh! Ah! Chávez is not going! to highlight their presence in the event.

José Alberto Torres, the director of the CNE for the state of Miranda, said that there were no incidents in a mock ballot carried out in a poll center eastern Caracas. He claimed to be pleased by the high turnout and added that the overwhelming presence of red clothes (the color of the ruling party) was not a problem.

As for technical details, Torres said that that voting was fast because people were trained.

People took between 15 to 22 minutes to go from the line of voters in the fingerprint scanners until they cast their vote in the touch-screen voting machines.

About noon, the process was affected by a confusing incident between members of the ruing party and opposition candidate María Corina Machado and her deputy Ricardo Sánchez.

For her part, Tibisay Lucena, the president of the National Electoral Council, praised that the mock vote as successful.

August 24

Electoral body not to regulate social networks during elections
The National Electoral Council (CNE) will not regulate the use of social networks such as Twitter or Facebook during the parliamentary elections to be held on September 26, Vicente Díaz, a CNE director, said.

"It is not true that the meeting dealt with the regulation of Twitter, Facebook or any social network. (…) This is not true at all," Díaz said. He compared the use of social networks with the use of telephone, which can not be regulated.

"Nobody will be able to provide results updates because the only official results will be provided by the National Electoral Council. Now, if they are going to make projections, this means that people will grab their phone and tell 'listen, this one is winning.' That is, the telephone use cannot be restrained. We cannot punish (telecommunications utility) Cantv because somebody called anybody else."

The CNE director also said that the media shall comply with the new regulation.

August 25

A total of 2,719 candidates kick off campaign ahead of parliamentary vote
The parliamentary electoral campaign has begun in Venezuela. From August 25, at 6:00 a.m. until September 23, at midnight, 2,719 candidates to the legislative elections to be held on September 26 will be engaged in election campaign.

A total of 1,548 candidates (main candidates and substitutes) for 110 nominal seats; 845 candidates in party lists for 52 seats to be elected in this modality (to be chosen in the 24 Venezuelan states); and 37 candidates (main candidates and substitutes) for the three indigenous seats in dispute will participate in the electoral campaign. Further, 276 people (main candidates and substitutes) will participate in the election of 12 seats in the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
Under the Special Regulation on Election Campaign and the Election Regulation Nº 6, the following activities, among others, will be banned: electoral propaganda outside of the time limits allowed by law; electoral ads that may harm the honor, privacy, dignity or reputation of people; electoral propaganda that promotes war and discrimination or promotes disobedience of the law or discourages the exercise of the right to vote and contains obscene or derogatory terms.

Vicente Díaz, a director of the National Electoral Council (CNE), ruled out the possibility to regulate social networks such as Twitter or Facebook on the election day. He stressed that the Special Regulation on Election Campaign and the Election Regulation N°6 do not include regulations or punishments for the use of social networks.

August 26

Venezuela's electoral authority not to punish excesses
The "excesses" of the first day of the parliamentary electoral campaign will not be punished by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

The inappropriate "coverage" by the state-run TV channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) of the events carried out by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the presence of children in an advertisement of political Primero Justicia (Justice First) party, the use of national symbols in an ad made by political Un Nuevo Tiempo (A New Era, UNT) party, the use of more column inches of ads by the ruling party and the "alteration" of photos by the pro-government newspaper VEA that expose opposition candidates to public ridicule will only merit a warning by the CNE.

Although the regulations on election campaign, based on the Organic Law on Elections and Political Participation (Lospp) and the Organic Law on Electoral Processes have not been modified in the last four years, Tibisay Lucena, the president of the CNE, referred to the conciliatory spirit of the electoral body to explain why the directors did not enforce the regulations governing the campaign activities of 2,719 candidates and more than 25 political parties.

The directors of the National Electoral Council decided to forgive fines up to USD 105,000 to both the opposition political parties and the pro-government media Vea and TV station Channel 8.