Editing Elections in Venezuela (section)

===1990–1999: Later constitutions===
The [[1998 Venezuelan presidential election|1998 presidential election]] was the first to be carried out with a new [[National Electoral Council (Venezuela)|National Electoral Council]].<ref name=McCoy99/> Traditionally poll workers had been provided by the parties, but in this election "a lottery was set up to draft 300,000 registered voters as poll workers".<ref name=McCoy99/> The elections also saw "the world's first automated voting system, which featured a single integrated electronic network that was supposed to transmit the results from the polling stations to central headquarters within minutes."<ref name=McCoy99/> The automated vote system enabled the Electoral Council to announce the results within 2.5 hours of the polls closing.<ref name=McCoy99/> After corroborating the results with the [[Carter Center]], the losing candidate conceded several hours later.<ref name=McCoy99>McCoy, Jennifer (1999), "Chavez and the End of "Partyarchy" in Venezuela", ''Journal of Democracy'', 10(3), pp64-77</ref> In the 1998 presidential elections, one of candidate [[Hugo Chávez]]'s electoral promises was to organize a referendum asking the people if they wanted to convene a [[1999 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela|National Constituent Assembly]]. His first decree as president was thus to order such a referendum, which took place on 19 April. The electorate were asked two questions{{spaced ndash}}whether a constituent assembly should be convened, and whether it should follow the mechanisms proposed by the president.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} [[1998 Venezuelan parliamentary election|The 1998 parliamentary elections]] were on 8 November 1998.<ref name="N1"/> There were 207 seats in the [[Chamber of Deputies of Venezuela|Chamber of Deputies]] and 54 seats in the [[Senate of Venezuela|Senate]].<ref>Nohlen, p575</ref><ref>Nohlen, p573</ref>

Under the new [[Bolivarian Revolution|Bolivarian]] [[1999 Venezuelan Constitution|1999 Constitution]], the legislative branch of Government in Venezuela is represented by a [[unicameral]] [[National Assembly (Venezuela)|National Assembly]]. The Assembly is made up of 165 [[Chamber of Deputies|deputies]] ''(diputados)'', who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote on a national party-list [[proportional representation]] system. In addition, three deputies are returned on a state-by-state basis, and three seats were reserved for representatives of Venezuela's indigenous peoples. All deputies serve five-year terms.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} In 1999 a two-term limit of six years each was established for the [[President of Venezuela]].