Carter Center declines Venezuela's invitation to elections

The Canter Center, based in Georgia, United States, declined the invitation from the National Electoral Council (CNE) to accompany presidential elections to be held on October 7. Besides, the organization asserts that the concept of accompaniment differs from observation.

According to the organization, the purpose of accompaniment is to invite foreign people to witness the activities carried out during the election day, through a largely symbolic political presence. In contrast, the purpose of observation is to invite international organizations to assess the whole electoral procedure in a systematic way.

For the 2012 presidential elections, CNE decided to allow international accompaniment instead of observation. However, CNE invited the Carter Center to form an intermediate option that included sending a small expert-technical group to participate in some of the pre-elections audits, and to witness elections the voting day.

However, the Carter Center received the invitation too late, to evaluate it and plan the identification of the necessary experts and financing.

The organization believes that the most important role in monitoring belongs to the citizens, including political parties, national observation organizations and voters.

Finally, the Carter Center promised to continue making an informal follow-up of  Venezuelan electoral and political developments.