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The Venezuelan government reiterated that its invitation to any international organization, especially the United Nations, that wishes to observe the upcoming May 20 presidential elections in the Bolivarian country.
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“Anyone that wants to come to Venezuela's elections should come to learn how elections are done in a real democracy,” said Communications and Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez during an interview with Venevision Sunday night.
“In Venezuela we hold 13 audits before the elections, and that's evidence of the transparency of our Venezuelan electoral system.” Rodriguez said that both President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition hope there's a visiting U.N. mission during the elections.
“The elections in Venezuela are thoroughly accompanied by electoral experts,” said Rodriguez responding to criticisms from the opposition.
Presidential candidate Henri Falcon recently visited New York and met with U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, other high ranking officials and Venezuela's Ambassador to the U.N. Samuel Moncada, to promote a visit of an observation mission.
Falcon said he supports the visit of an Evaluation Commission of the U.N. to have a “truthful, trustworthy, transparent and safe” electoral process.
Jose Luis Diaz, a spokesman for U.N. political affairs, said Tuesday: "The U.N. Secretary General is considering a request from the Venezuelan government for the accompanying of the electoral process in the run-up to presidential polls set for 20 May."
Aside from a U.N. commission visit, Rodriguez also talked about the possibility of observer missions from the Latin American and Caribbean States Community (CELAC), the South American Nations Union (Unasur), the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the Carter Center and the European Union (EU).
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