December 26, 2005
General Secretary Says OAS had a "Problem" with Venezuela's Opposition

(Venezuelanalysis.com) - "The OAS observer mission had a problem with the opposition parties that boycotted Venezuela's parliamentary elections three weeks ago, said OAS General Secretary José Miguel Insulza in an interview with the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio that was published yesterday.

'We had a problem with the Venezuelan opposition, which assured us that they would not withdraw from the [electoral] process if certain conditions were met. These were met and despite this, they withdrew,' said Insulza. 'This had an impact on the high abstention,' he added.

According to Insulza, 'if the path of abstention is chosen, then one cannot complain that the entire parliament is in the hands of one's political adversary.'

Insulza did acknowledge, though, that there were, 'some problems here and there with the elections, which appeared in the [OAS] report, but in the election itself there was nothing abnormal' (...)."