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On December 6, the legislative elections will be held in Venezuela, a controversial day in the midst of a pandemic that has not been recognized by the opposition and which is branded a farce by the Organization of American States and the European Union.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela reported that everything is ready for the legislative elections on December 6 and called on citizens to vote on the day. “So ladies and gentlemen, Venezuelans, we want to tell you that everything is ready. Only you are missing, with your vote, with your decision, so that on December 6 we elect the parliamentarians of the National Assembly “, said the president of the CNE, Indira Alfonzo, before the press.
Alfonzo also reiterated that on the day of the vote they will have all the protection measures against covid-19. In the elections next Sunday, 20,710,421 Venezuelans are called to vote and, according to analyst estimates, abstention predominates in the political landscape.
What do Venezuelans choose?
What is at stake this Sunday is the renewal of the members of the National Assembly, whose majorities are today in the hands of the opposition. Those elected this December 6 will serve the period 2021-2026. Until this year, Parliament had 167 deputies, but Nicolás Maduro, according to the opposition, in an attempt to wrest control from the opposition increased the number of deputies to 277, an increase of 66% of parliamentarians.
See more: Henrique Capriles asks to postpone elections in Venezuela
Before Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999 and extinguished both Houses, the Congress and the Senate numbered 260 legislators in total.
Nicolás Maduro’s regime has given another blow to democracy, violating article 186 of the Constitution that speaks of a population base of 1.1% and resolves 167 deputies for the national territory that has a population close to 32 million inhabitants , explain analysts.
Who can participate?
The National Electoral Council (CNE) confirmed that 86 political parties will participate in the elections and that the new formula for electing positions will be 52% through proportional representation (list) and 48% by personalized vote (nominal). Before the announcement, the voting system was 70% nominal and 30% list, an unbalanced model, because according to the CNE, “a party won more seats than it was entitled to when it managed to win by one vote.”
However, 27 opposition parties, among those disqualified and refusing to participate in the elections, signed a letter denouncing “the electoral farce.” Primero Justicia, of which Henrique Capriles is part; Voluntad Popular, led by Leopoldo López; as well as the social democrats Acción Democrática and Un Nuevo Tiempo refused to participate this Sunday.
Part of what the opposition denounced is that “for the parliamentary electoral process of 2015, the democratic unit consolidated its victory with the use of the UNIT card. The use of this card was hijacked by the regime, preventing its use due to precautionary measures, and the directors who represent the UNIT as an organization are still subject to criminal judicial proceedings.
According to Maduro, there are 14,400 candidates who signed up.
Does the opposition participate?
The Venezuelan opposition, led by the head of Parliament, Juan Guaidó, rejects the elections because, among other issues, the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) intervened several parties critical of the Government, and put in front of former militants who had been expelled and accused of being corrupt.
The elections have also been questioned by the country’s opposition majority, lthe Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union (EU) as they consider that they will be a “farce”. There is also another group of parties that began a process of dialogue with the Government and that have chosen to participate in the elections.
Neither the parliamentarians nor the popular consultation resolve the distrust in the institutions, nor the political fracture, nor the internal conflict, nor the legitimacy of the parties. The challenge of political negotiation remains alive and well … and without that task, everything else remains straw.
– Luis Vicente León (@luisvicenteleon) November 16, 2020
Head of the opposition Parliament recognized as president in charge of Venezuela by more than 60 countries, Guaidó is not a candidate in the legislative elections next Sunday, which he denounces as “a fraud”, and is betting everything on a plebiscite with which he wants to endorse an extension to the period of the current National Assembly and promote new sanctions against the government of the socialist president Nicolás Maduro.
“We could hardly call that process an election” on December 6, says the leader. “Maduro’s goal is not even to gain legitimacy,” but “To annihilate the democratic alternative in Venezuela” with some votes in which he hopes to end the opposition majority of the Legislative, he maintains.
What is Juan Guaidó betting on?
Next year a new Parliament will be installed that will surely be dominated by Chavismo, given the refusal of the main opposition political parties to nominate candidates. The United States has already announced that it will ignore it and the European Union has asked, without success, to postpone the legislative elections.
See more: Opposition in Venezuela, a puzzle that nobody knows how to put together
Guaidó’s challenge is to save its validity with the consultation he promotes, scheduled for December 7 to 12, without the support of electoral authorities, whom he accuses of serving Maduro.
What is playing Maduro?
The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) called on its supporters to vote “with discipline,” just announcing that they will comply with all health regulations for COVID-19.
According to the vice president of the PSUV, Diosdado Cabello, the opposition will be defeated, both “the one that calls not to vote, because the people are going to go out to vote,” and “the one that is participating because they did not prepare, because they too they bet on the coup ”.
Several of these parties such as Patria Para Todos (PPT) or the Unified Tendencies to Reach the Organized Revolutionary Action Movement (Tupamaro) were also intervened by the TSJ, whose members were elected in an express process and are considered as open supporters of Chavismo.
The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), a traditional ally of the PSUV and which Cabello did not mention directly, has formed an alliance that includes several Chavista organizations, the Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APR), supported by the directives of the PPT and Tupamaro who were chosen by the militants.
Maduro’s goal is to recover the National Assembly, in the hands of the opposition since 2005. But his management in the government, the COVID-19 crisis and the economic and social crisis suggest that the vote this Sunday will be very low.
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