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The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, regained control of Parliament this Sunday, five years after losing it, after the victory of Chavismo in legislative elections boycotted by almost all the opposition and marked by a high abstention of 69% and a strong international rejection.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allies concentrated 67.6% of the 5,264,104 votes counted in a first bulletin with 82.35% of the votes transmitted, announced early this Monday Indira Alfonzo, president of the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Alfonzo did not specify, however, how many of the 277 seats at stake will remain in the hands of the so-called Great Patriotic Pole.
Abstention reached 69% in elections to which more than 20 of the 30 million inhabitants of this country were called. The main opposition political parties, led by Juan Guaidó, had branded the legislative ones as “fraud” and called on the population to stay home.
“Happy early mornings of victory!” Maduro celebrated. “We have a new National Assembly, we have had a tremendous and gigantic victory.”
In the legislative elections of 2015, in which the opposition broke 15 years of Chavista hegemony, there was 71% participation and in those of 2010, 66.45%.
This Sunday is the highest abstention in this type of election since 2004, when only 25% of voters went to the polls. The opposition, then, decided to marginalize itself en bloc by claiming that there were no conditions.
Many voting centers were half empty throughout the day, AFP found. The use of a mask was mandatory, with markings on the floor to maintain physical distance due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The opposition had already boycotted the 2018 presidential votes. By accusing him of fraudulently reelection, the outgoing opposition majority in Parliament declared Maduro a “usurper” and Guaidó claimed the presidency in charge of Venezuela with the backing of fifty countries, the United States among them.
There was 46.07% participation in that process, the lowest figure for presidential elections in the Venezuelan democratic era, which began in 1958.
“We had patience” to “get rid of this nefarious National Assembly (…), which brought the plague of sanctions,” Maduro said earlier after voting at the main military installation in Caracas, Fort Tiuna. He changed his polling place at the last minute.
“Consummate fraud”
“The fraud has been consummated. The majority rejection of the people of Venezuela has been evident (…). The majority of Venezuela turned their back on Maduro and his fraud, ”Guaidó said, referring to the abstention, in a video that he published on social networks.
Previously, the head of US diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, on Twitter called these elections a “farce”.
Washington is leading the pressure against Maduro with economic sanctions on Venezuela, including an oil embargo in place since April 2019.
“A zombie spoke! (…) I hope that diplomacy will return to the State Department and the White House very soon, ”the Venezuelan Foreign Minister reacted. Jorge Arreaza, alluding to the electoral defeat of Republican Donald Trump before Democrat Joe Biden.
Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama ignored the Sunday elections. The European Union denied that they are “credible.”
The Organization of American States (OAS) had already expressed its rejection of the process.
Despite the majority boycott, a dissident fraction of the opposition nominated candidates, including some with cards from the opposition parties leading the veto, as the ruling supreme court handed over control to Guaidó’s opponents.
Guaidó’s dissident opponents concentrated 17.95% of the votes in the initial CNE report. Small Chavista parties estranged from Maduro and other minority organizations took the rest.
“Commit to Venezuela”
Guaidó is now calling for a plebiscite (December 7-12) to extend the parliamentary term until there are “free, verifiable and transparent elections.”
It will be a symbolic consultation, since Maduro exercises territorial and institutional control with the support of the Armed Forces.
Amid the signs of international rejection, Maduro found voices of support for the legislatures.
“I want the European Union to reflect,” said former Spanish government president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who led failed dialogue processes in Venezuela and this time acted as an electoral observer. “Not to recognize is to ignore? You have to commit ”, he added.
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, were among those invited by the Chavista government.
“These elections are going to strengthen democracy in Latin America,” Morales said.
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