CNE president Tibisay Lucena under mounting pressure to rule that banned candidates could stand anyway

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): National Electoral Council (CNE) threw in the towel on Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russian's controversial ban on 368 people standing as candidates at the state and municipal elections scheduled for November 23.

CNE president Tibisay Lucena had been under mounting pressure from some aspirant candidates to rule that people could stand anyway. That said, signs increasingly suggested she was inclining towards abiding by the ban. In the end, she and three other directors on the CNE board voted tacitly to abide by the ban. As had been expected, the lone dissenter was said to have been CNE director Vicente Diaz, who recently said the people in question should be allowed to stand.

Russian's critics argued that he'd got the law all wrong because any such ban could only be applied to people convicted in a court. It was noted that the CNE had in the past permitted candidates to register even if they had been "inhabilitated" under earlier bans, and that some of them had gone on to win elected office.

Lucena has always shown reluctance to be pressed to take sides in the argument, and it took her more than 100 days to reach a decision once Russian had delivered his list to the CNE. Even then, the ruling was only partial, and echoed her reaction to the same issues some time ago. At that time, her line had been that it was not up to the CNE to make a ruling, but the Supreme Justice Tribunal (TSJ). She referred barred candidates to the court, but the judges have yet to issue rulings and the cases are in limbo.

According to CNE director German Yepez, one of the four who's said to vote to go along with the ban, Lucena urged the TSJ to reach verdicts on pending cases brought by people on the list. This was because the period for registering as a candidate starts on August 5 and ends one week later.