:nation

||| LEGISLATION. The president acted within his powers, Carrizález says

Veep defends new laws

||| All new laws decreed by Chávez are “humanist” in spirit, he said. ||| Another 16 legislative proposals would be sent to the National Assembly. ||| Primero Justicia complained that many of the latest laws had been rejected at last december’s constitutional reform referendum.

Jeremy Morgan | DJ Staff
 

Vice President Ramón Carrizález said the government's package of 26 new laws were based on a "humanist spirit" and he claimed the people weren't listening to the opposition any more.
Speaking at a press conference to which only the state media were reportedly invited, he said: "Venezuelans have learnt not to allow themselves to be manipulated or influenced by the coup-mongering attitudes of opposition groups. Now, the people recognize the spirit of these laws, the great humanist sense, and understand that if they're attacked it's only because we're on the right road."
Carrizález took issue with criticism by "counter-revolutionary sectors" of President Hugo Chávez' having made use of his special powers to promulgate these laws by decree before the Enabling Act expired on July 31.
The president had been fully within his powers in doing so, the laws had been declared to be constitutional by the Supreme Justice Tribunal (TSJ), and they had been duly published in the Official Gazette, he added.
Carrizales said proposals for a further 16 laws would be submitted to the National Assembly (AN) because they contained "many elements of discussion" but he did not go into detail about what these envisaged.
Julio Borges of the opposition party Primero Justicia dismissed the presidential package as a bad joke on the referendum late last year which rejected Chávez' plan to reform the Constitution, not least by removing a ban on more than one successive presidential election.
Borges claimed many of the new laws consisted of changes that had been submitted to and rejected by the voters at the referendum last December 2.
The laws signed by Chávez were "exactly what the Venezuelan people had voted against in a clear manner on that day, he added.
Rafael Simón Jiménez made much the same point, accusing the government of "inconceivable piracy" in its method of using the enabling powers to introduce "contraband" laws. |||

||| ELECTIONS. Director says inhabilitados won’t be accepted as candidates

The CNE to begin registrations

Jeremy Morgan | DJ Staff
 

The National Electoral Council (CNE) today begins the process of registering candidates for the state and municipal elections scheduled for November 23 amid contradictions over what attitude it would take towards aspirant candidates banned by Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russián.
Officially, the CNE will not accept registrations from individuals on Russián's list.
Several people on the list including Chacao Municipal Mayor Leopoldo López have vowed they'll turn up and try anyway, if only to make a point about the ban – and in the process put the supposedly autonomous and independent CNE on the spot.
CNE Director Germán Yépez said anyone on Russián's list of inhabilitados wouldn't be registered as a candidate because they would be rejected by the automated system.
In saying this, he tacitly admitted that the Russián list had already been fed into the CNE's computers.
Yépez didn't say how many people were already in effect banned from standing as candidates. Russián's list was cut down to 272 individuals before he handed it over to the Supreme Justice Tribunal (TSJ) and, presumably, the CNE as well.
Critics of the ban claim that the only individuals ineligible to run for elected office are those who've been convicted in court of committing a crime. People on Russián's list insist this doesn't apply in their cases.
Given that roughly half of Venezuela's prison population of a little over 19,000 are behind bars serving jail sentences (the rest are in custody awaiting trial), this would put the number of people not allowed to vote at around 9,000, including those barred by Russián.
It would seem that while Yépez' view of the inhabilitados is shared by CNE President Tibisay Lucena, it isn't universally held by all of his colleagues. Fellow CNE Director Vicente Díaz reiterated his earlier opinion that the Russián ban was illegal.
It had "no foundation in any Article of the Constitution, non under any laws, nor the Penal Code, nor the Suffrage Law, nor the electoral power," he said.
Humberto Castillo, a member of the National Electoral Board – the organization which actually runs elections – appeared to try to dampen speculation that the vote could be delayed.
Any alteration of the CNE's timetable would put the elections at risk, he said.
Candidate registration is scheduled to close on August 25. |||

ABN and DJ Staff
 

Defense Commission
in permanent session

The Commission of Security and Defense of the National Assembly declared itself in permanent session until the Organic Law on Kidnapping and Extortion is sanctioned.
The President of the Commission, Rafael Gil Barrios, said on Monday that the commission is working hard with the proposals and suggestions received last week during a public consultation regarding the law.
"We expect to submit the project to a second discussion on Tuesday with all the members of the chamber. That is our goal", Gil said.
The deputy also said that the members of the Commission are in favor of hard punishments for people who take part in extortion, kidnapping and related crimes.
Punishment, he said, includes paying time in maximum security prisons.
"There is a full rejection against criminals who deprive people of their liberty by force. The people request the maximum sentence (30 years) to them without any kind of benefit", the deputy added.
Gil added that he is in favor of revising laws linked to crimes in which the criminals get out of jail because of some legal benefit and they go on committing crimes. "We need to overhaul those cases in order to avoid greater damages."
Regarding Congressman Calixto Ortega's proposal to apply life imprisonment, Gill Barrios said: "we support severe sanctions, but in correlation with the penitentiary system regarding its implementation and reinsertion of citizens into society."