March 21, 2006
CNE: Capel audit confirms voting register legitimacy

(El Universal) - "National Electoral Council (CNE) President Jorge Rodríguez submitted the outcome of an international audit conducted by the Center of Electoral Advisory and Enhancement (Capel.)

As appears from the report, he noted, there is no rationale to substantiate that the voting register is illegitimate for election purposes in Venezuela.

Rodríguez made emphasis on the findings and quoted, 'Capel technical team has not found any reason implying that Venezuela's voting register is not legitimate as a legally binding instrument for elections.'

'There is no any reason whatsoever to distrust the Venezuelan voting register. There is no scientific, objective, valid, true reason stating that the voting register is not sound enough to hold elections in Venezuela,' the official pointed out.

In addition, the report found that none of the inconsistencies detected exceeded 5 percent of the margin of error usually permitted according to international standards in the analyses of voting registers.

Rodríguez explained that the audit took 83 days and CNE was responsible for the delay due to failure to pay wages and Capel technical advisory on time".