Venezuela’s D6 Elections in a Nutshell

*  On December 6, Venezuela elects a new National Assembly that will have 277 lawmakers. The 2015 National Assembly comprised 167 lawmakers.

*  Each legislator will have an alternate who could take office in any eventuality.

*  14,400 candidates will compete for those 277 seats. Those candidates belong to 107 political organizations, 36 of which are national organizations and 71 are local, regional or zonal organizations.

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*  90 percent of the political organizations registered with the National Electoral Council (CNE) will take part in the D6 elections.

*  The Venezuelan opposition is represented by 98 of the 107 political organizations.

*  The two coalitions with the greatest adhesions and national reach are the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) (GPP), which is a coalition that supports the Bolivarian Revolution, and the democratic unity (MUD), which is a coalition that has opposed President Nicolas Maduro's administration.

*  The GPP is made up of left-wing organizations such as the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the People's Electoral Movement (MEP), Homeland for All (PPT), and the Tupamaro Revolutionary Action Movement.

*  The MUD is an opposition coalition made up of organizations such as Popular Will (VP), Democratic Action (AD), and Justice First (PJ).

*  The 277 parliamentary seats will be defined by three mechanisms: the nominal vote, the regional list vote, and the national list vote.

*  Through the "nominal vote", the citizen chooses a specific candidate. Through the “regional list vote”, the citizen elects a sub-national political organization.

*  The "national list vote" emerged from the process of dialogue between the government and the opposition.

*  According to the "national list vote" procedure, a citizen voting in favor of a certain party on the regional list will also be voting for the same party on the national list.

*  The 52 percent of the new lawmakers will be elected by "list votes" and the 48 percent by "nominal votes." That is to say, 144 lawmakers will be chosen by "list votes" and 130 positions will be chosen by "national nominal votes".

*  To complete the 277 seats, three members of the National Assembly will come from Indigenous peoples.

*  The selection of the candidates in the "list vote" will proceed through the D'Hont method, which is a formula that assigns proportions taking into account the vote obtained by each political alliance and the population of the electoral constituency in dispute.

*  The opposition groups led by Juan Guaido do not take part in the D6 elections. The U.S.-backed opposition called on the population not to vote.

*  In Venezuela, voting is not mandatory. In order to exercise their political right, citizens must register to vote and subsequently attend a polling station to vote if they wish.

*  Registration in the electoral register does not oblige the citizen to vote. Therefore, registration rates and voting rates have been usually different.

*  Historically, the highest registration and suffrage rates have occurred in presidential elections. In Venezuela, the Parliamentary elections have not had high levels of registration and suffrage, except those held in 2015.

*  The last time Venezuelans were called to the polls was in 2018 when Nicolas Maduro was re-elected as president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.