Electoral Organization and Credibility. The Venezuelan Case (1989-2005)

The fundamental objective of this paper is to analyze the theme of credibility in Venezuelan electoral results (1989-2005) in relation to the integration of political parties in electoral organisms, either because the members of the electoral directory are designated by political parties directly, or by the institutions they represent. The basic hypothesis is that party integration in electoral organisms generates problems of credibility in relation to electoral results on the part of the general population, since the legitimacy of the elections is based on the confidence the electorate has that its will is reflected in the results. The credibility variable is analyzed in elections since 1989, from the year in which the electoral system reform was installed in the reform process of the Venezuelan State, until 2005, the year in which the electoral organization was governed by new legal instruments based fundamentally on the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in 1999. The conclusion is that there is sufficient evidence to reinforce the proposed hypothesis.