00:00 Thursday in Venezuela begins the registration of presidential candidates according to the
00:06 electoral schedule approved by the National Electoral Council of Venezuela for five days
00:12 from this 21st and until March 25th.
00:18 Our correspondent Gladys Quezada is on ground with the latest.
00:24 Hi, Gladys.
00:26 How is it?
00:27 Thank you, Irma.
00:29 Thanks for having me here in Tel Aviv English and also from the south.
00:34 Gladys, I would like to know what is the atmosphere that is right now in Caracas in these first
00:42 days of inscriptions for the presidential elections.
00:48 Well, so far the ambience, the atmosphere is quiet, it's calm, but you can feel the
00:58 people is heating up.
00:59 People are just preparing for this event, the top official event in the electoral and
01:04 judicial year.
01:05 In this occasion, people is registering as voters.
01:09 So it's a process that they are going to and going through right now.
01:14 They are coming to the National Electoral Council venues all over the country and they
01:18 are registering their data and their documentation as voters.
01:22 Many of them have expired documentation, so they have to come here and to update to be
01:29 legally inscribed as voters ahead of the July 28th presidential elections.
01:34 Let's recall also that ahead of this process, the candidates or maybe the nominees of each
01:41 political force were postulated and were called for their party.
01:47 And that was the case last Saturday with the candidate for the United National Socialist
01:52 Party of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moroz, as the new candidate of the party.
01:57 And other political coalitions have been backing his nomination and other political forces
02:03 not affiliated with the ruling party have been nominating their candidates.
02:08 So from now on, there is another step, another process in this protocol ahead of the elections
02:16 of July 28th also.
02:18 And I think it's one of the main questions.
02:20 So all the candidates that have been legally inscribed, that have all the permits and also
02:28 that have all the allowances by the National Electoral Council, they can come in here and
02:33 they have the right to register.
02:36 But those who are not allowed, those who were banned because of political crimes or maybe
02:42 because of some aspects in their postulations or in their political stance, they are, or
02:49 their actions, maybe that's the way to express that, they are not allowed to come here and
02:56 inscribe.
02:57 But so far the city is in calm.
02:58 The National Electoral Council is complying with its own protocol and the forces, all
03:04 the political forces are gathering here to do this process and to inscribe their nominees
03:09 as candidates.
03:10 Gladys, how is this process?
03:15 Can you explain us for the parties to register their candidates for election?
03:21 How is it?
03:22 Explain to us.
03:24 Okay.
03:26 So, Irma, every candidate, every nominee by a political force must first of all create
03:36 a user and a password in the website of the National Electoral Council in order to register
03:42 digitally.
03:43 That is one of the steps of this process.
03:47 Afterwards, they must come in here with all the evidence that showcases that they have
03:53 the backing of a political force and they have the support of a political legal force
03:59 in the country.
04:00 Also, they have to give, to render the evidence regarding their finances because they have
04:06 to showcase that their financial support for their candidacy is legal and they have a legal
04:13 source of finances.
04:15 Afterwards, they have to render all this evidence to showcase that they are a legal candidate
04:22 and after that, they will be registered in the National Electoral Council as a candidate.
04:27 The CNE, the National Electoral Council has five days from today, March 21st to March
04:34 25th to register the candidates but if in any case they are rejected as a possible candidate,
04:41 they also have the opportunity, the candidates, to appeal the decision of the National Electoral
04:47 Council as far, so far they have the legal evidence and the requirements to do so because
04:55 there are legal processes, there are judicial processes that can be started during this
05:00 electoral or pre-electoral times.
05:03 Those are the steps, those are the conditions, the requisites to the voters and also for
05:09 the candidates to be nominated and to be registered legally as the candidate for each political
05:14 force.
05:15 Thank you, thank you very much.
05:19 Gladys Quesada from Caracas, Venezuela.
05:23 We right now continue with other news here in From the South.
