The Venice Commission has stated on many occasions that each country is free to select the electoral system that is in the country’s best interest18. However, the constitution and international standards establish some limits which must be respected. Equality is guaranteed by Article 1, 2 and 21 of the Constitution of Venezuela. Equality of suffrage is guaranteed, inter alia, by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 21 § 3) and by the American Convention on Human Rights (Article 23). The Venice Commission’s Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters (para 2) underscores that equal suffrage imposes equal voting power. Equality entails a clear and balanced distribution of seats among constituencies on the basis of people (population, number of resident nationals, number of registered voters and possibly the number of voters) and not territories in the election of lower chambers. The Code recognizes that geographical criteria may be taken into consideration. However, the permissible departure from the norm should not be more than 10% and should certainly not exceed 15% except in special circumstances (protection of a concentrated minority, sparsely populated administrative entity).