2003: President Chavez Established a National Identity Mission
Five Million New Voters were Registered by 2006

The Venezuelan National Identity Card system was started in 1941. Venezuelan Law mandates that children obtain their first ID card upon reaching nine years old. The ID card needs to be renewed every ten years. Possession of the card is required for voting.

Venezuelan citizens are eligible to register for voting when they turn 18. In 2000, 75% of eligible voters were registered. Those excluded were in poor, rural, and indigenous areas.[1] Hugo Chavez was elected President in 1998 and re-elected under a new Constitution in 2000.Chavez campaigned on a promise to provide rights to classes of people who had been excluded under previous governments. In 2003. Chavez established and funded Mission Identidad to provide Identity cards to all citizens and register eligible voters. Chavez established Onidex, an Agency responsible for issuing identity documents. Onidex was reorganized into SAIME, a government Agency responsible for issuing passports, visas, immigration documents and identity cards.

As part of Mission Identidad, special operations to provide ID cards and register voters were set up throughout the Country. Mobile Registration Centers were included in the registration program. The registration process and cards were free. By September 2006, five million new voters had been registered. [2] The increase in voter registration has been credited with increasing political inclusion of previously excluded sectors of society:[3]

·       “Many of the political changes that have taken place in Venezuela in the past 12 years have involved an increase in political inclusion of previously excluded sectors of society. For example, the percentage of the voting age population that is registered to vote rose from 79% in 1998 to 92% in 2010.”

The coverage of the electoral register went from approximately 75% in 2000 to 97% in 2012, involving a growth of 60% in the number of voters.[1]



     

1.      Jimenez, R. and M. Hidalgo, Forensic Analysis of Venezuelan Elections during the Chavez Presidency, PLOS ONE, June 2014.

2.      Venezuelanalysis, Venezuela’s Social Democracy Hits a Speed Bump, December 4, 2007

3.      Wilpert, G. An Assessment of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution at Twelve Years, Venezuelanalysis, February 2, 2011.

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