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The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, this Sunday brushes the control of Parliament in elections boycotted by the opposition, without international support and with empty voting centers.
The victory will give him power over the only institution in control of his adversaries since 2015, when 15 years of hegemony broke. However, Maduro effectively annulled the chamber with the ruling Supreme Court and an all-powerful Constituent Assembly, which will cease to function in December.
The voting centers, which opened at 10:00 GMT, began to close at around 23:00 GMT in a process that summoned more than 20 of the 30 million inhabitants of the Caribbean country.
The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) claimed to seek the “perfect victory” that would end the control that the opposition exercised over the Legislative since 2015.
However, Agence France-Presse noted, many of the voting centers were empty or with few people in line throughout the day.
“We had patience, the wisdom, to wait for this hour, this day and get rid of this disastrous National Assembly (…), which brought the plague of sanctions, cruelty, pain, suffering,” Maduro told reporters after voting in the main military installation in Caracas, Fort Tiuna. He changed his usual voting direction.
While waiting for the announcement of the results, the opposition leader Juan Guaidó condemned in advance a “fraud.”
“The fraud has been consummated. The majority rejection of the people of Venezuela has been evident (…). The majority of Venezuela turned its back on Maduro and his fraud “, expressed in reference to the possibility of a high abstention the parliamentary head, recognized as president in charge of Venezuela by fifty countries, among them, the United States.
The head of US diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, on Twitter called the parliamentary elections a “farce” and “fraud”.
Washington is leading the pressure against Maduro with economic sanctions on Venezuela, including an oil embargo in place since April 2019.
“A zombie spoke! (…). Hopefully, diplomacy will return to the State Department and the White House very soon ”, reacted the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Jorge Arreaza, alluding to the electoral defeat of Donald Trump before Democrat Joe Biden.
Maduro had earlier called to ask for “the lifting of all sanctions against the new United States government of Joe Biden, in one voice.”
While, The Organization of American States (OAS) said that it will also ignore the result of this Sunday.
“This is a humiliation”
The use of a mask was mandatory in the voting centers, with markings on the floor to maintain physical distance from the covid-19 pandemic.
In the 23 de Enero neighborhood of Caracas, a stronghold of Chavismo, the centers were more crowded than in other sectors of the Venezuelan capital.
But in some cities there were more people waiting to refuel than to vote, reflecting the country’s economic crisis.
“This is a humiliation,” said José Alberto, who had been waiting for hours at a service station. “I will not vote”he added.
The large opposition parties already abstained in the 2018 presidential elections, which they denounced as fraudulent, justification for Guaidó to proclaim himself from the head of Parliament as president in charge.
Still, a small dissident fraction of the opposition will seek to win one of the 277 seats at stake.
“We exercise our right to vote with the firm conviction that UNITED we are going to change the country,” wrote Timoteo Zambrano, part of that opposition that did participate.
“Commit to Venezuela”
Guaidó is now calling in parallel to a plebiscite (November 7-12) to extend the parliamentary term until there are “free, verifiable and transparent elections.”
This consultation will only be symbolic, since Maduro exercises territorial and institutional control with the support of the Armed Forces.
In addition to the United States, the European Union, which tried unsuccessfully to postpone the legislation, denied that they are “credible”, so their recognition of the process is unlikely, European sources commented.
“I want the European Union to reflect,” said the former president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who led failed dialogue processes in Venezuela and today acts as an electoral observer. “Not to recognize is to ignore? You have to commit ”.
The former presidents of Bolivia Evo Morales of Bolivia, of Ecuador Rafael Correa and of Paraguay Fernando Lugo, along with former Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba, are among the guests.
“These elections will strengthen democracy in Latin America”Morales noted.
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