Caracas, Nov 24 – The celebration of the fourth National Popular Consultation in Venezuela was considered a great democratic day, which today reaffirmed the people's confidence in a process that still has much to accomplish but is the right path.
Although general data on citizen participation and the selection of the most voted projects have not yet been released, expected this Monday, the qualitative assessment provided by the Minister for Communes, Social Movements, and Urban Agriculture of Venezuela, Ángel Prado, demonstrated its value.
The fact that it was held peacefully and with complete calm throughout the country showed the civility of a people who this year participated in nine elections, six consultations, and three constitutional votes to elect the National Assembly, governors, and mayors.
Prado highlighted that this event, compared to previous ones, achieved the highest participation, which he attributed to the fact that “there are already concrete results, there is trust, and resources truly arrive directly without intermediaries, allowing the people to carry out their new projects,” he reaffirmed.
In the minister’s opinion, yesterday’s Popular Consultation was a “great democratic day” in which communities voted massively at 8,630 polling centers distributed across the 5,336 Communal Circuits.
The steady turnout of grassroots voters was reflected in the National Electoral Council's (CNE) decision to extend the voting by one additional hour beyond the scheduled closing time of 6:00 p.m. local time, and even at 8:00 p.m., people were still voting and queuing in some places, according to Prado.
In a press release shared on Telegram, the CNE stated that voting, which began yesterday at 8:00 a.m. local time, was scheduled to end at 6:00 p.m., but “due to the high turnout of voters, it was decided to grant a one-hour extension.”
The Electoral Power reaffirmed its commitment to participatory democracy, the transparency of the process, and absolute respect for the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people.
Prado expressed that it was a “great democratic celebration; there are no issues or any negative reports whatsoever.”
The minister insisted that it was a day of strong participation, people in the streets, and a populace “enthusiastic, encouraged, and hopeful” about the resources the government will deliver, which will allow new commitments to be fulfilled.
This year will conclude with the completion of important projects, of which more than 23,000 have already been inaugurated and another 10,000 are underway. In this consultation, the communities voted for 10,662 projects that will begin to be implemented starting this week with the arrival of financing.
The Minister for Communes praised “the great activation in the territories and the collective work that allows many problems to be effectively and excellently resolved.”
He pointed out that the nearly 30,000 projects to be completed this year were carried out directly with “the people, the popular organization, and the people who love their neighborhood and want to solve the problems” of their community, in addition to optimizing resources for maximum impact, he praised.
As a novelty of this process, the decision was made for the people to choose where to vote, where the electoral center would operate, and how many polling stations each territory, Commune, and Communal Circuit should have.
“This is a particular feature of this Popular Consultation,” said Prado, who predicted that they will continue advancing and perfecting the system every day where the people are empowered and identify with this method of work, which guarantees that a good part of the national budget is executed with Popular Power.
In statements to the press, the rector of the National University of Communes, Jorge Arreaza, valued that, step by step, “we are building our democracy, a real, direct, participatory, and protagonistic democracy as the Constitution states.”
Around 79 international observers from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, Kenya, Canada, Mexico, Burkina Faso, and France came to Venezuela to closely observe the elections, and as an Argentine woman stated, these constitute an expression of the “resounding democracy” in which young people as young as 15 years old can participate.
The day before, Venezuelans came out to vote for more than 10,000 development projects among 36,574 selected in popular assemblies, a method that reaffirms participatory and protagonistic democracy, in which the people define, choose, and build their dreams.
