Guyana-supported global parliamentary motion for free and fair elections in Venezuela defeated

Last Updated on Monday, 25 March 2024, 14:56 by Denis Chabrol

A Guyana-backed motion at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly on the absence of parliamentary democracy in Venezuela was defeated on Saturday after objections by Cuba and Ecuador.

Prior to the vote on the motion, Speaker of Guyana’s National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir said Venezuela was not represented at the March 23- 27 event in Geneva, Switzerland because of a “lack of parliamentary democracy”, the basis for parliamentary diplomacy, rather than owing dues. “The suspension of Venezuela, contrary to what some here in this room are peddling that Venezuela was suspended because of non-payment of dues, it was not. It was based on the issue of not having a democratically elected parliament,” he said.

Mr Nadir, a veteran Guyanese centre-right politician, also told the Assembly that Venezuela has a poor record of breaching the rights of members of parliament (MPs). “The largest violation of human rights of MPs that the IPU has recorded singularly and collectively is against Venezuela,” he said.

According to the Guyana House Speaker, “all this resolution is calling for is for democratic elections to be held in Venezuela, one of the founding principles of the IPU. Despite his emotional appeal for the resolution for free, fair and transparent elections to be supported on the grounds of “Action of IPU for democracy”, when it was put to the vote, 225 voted ‘yes’, 760 ‘no’, and 626 abstentions. The specified two-thirds majority was not attained.

The 148th IPU Assembly will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 23-27 March 2024. This is the first time in almost six years that the IPU’s biannual Assembly will be held in Geneva. Hundreds of parliamentarians from around the world are expected to attend the Assembly to address the theme Parliamentary diplomacy: Building bridges for peace and understanding.

Prior to the vote, Argentina’s representative at the IPU Assembly said the banning of opposition candidates and the prevention of Venezuelans from electing their representatives, “generating a crisis, a humanitarian crisis of enormous impact in the region with forced migrants who have had to flee their country due to the situations of poverty and indignity to which they have been subjected.”

The IPU President at the outset said the motion was submitted by Argentina on behalf of Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. But the Ecuadorian representative said she was the lone parliamentarian there and she had not signed up to support the resolution. “Please take it into account so that it is eliminated Ecuador is not going to sign an emergency point against the Republic of Venezuela, a sovereign and independent country,” she said. A clarification was later provided that another Ecuadorian official had enjoined her country’s support for the resolution. Ecuador’s name was deleted.

The Cuban representative made clear its opposition to the resolution against the “free and sovereign people of Venezuela” “because it has a merely interventionist character and violates international law,” The Cuban official said supported Venezuela acting in keeping with its laws and constitution.