Abstract

BREWER-CARIAS, Allan R.. El secuestro del poder electoral y la confiscación del derecho a la participación política mediante el referendo revocatorio presidencial: Venezuela, 2000-2004. Bol. Mex. Der. Comp. [online]. 2005, vol.38, n.112, pp.11-73. ISSN 2448-4873.

The Venezuelan Constitution of 1999 divides national power into five: legislative, executive, judicial, citizen's and electoral powers. In this essay, the author analyses the latter and studies what he calls its abduction, seeking to identify the problems, restrictions and limitations relative to political participation and the system for the election of political representatives. The author describes how it was that in political praxis the independence of the so-called electoral power was neutralized and minimized, when the National Constituent Assembly that approved the 1999 Constitution itself, issued the Decree of the Regime's Transition, by which top holders of public office, but the President of the Republic, were removed. Under this situation, an institutional vacuum was created, because the Constituent Assembly did not respect the rules that were created by the Assembly itself, concerning the autonomy and independence of the electoral power.

Keywords : electoral law; democracy; political participation; political representation.