Only 10% of Candidates Withdrew from Venezuelan Elections

[Clara T]

Only 10% of Candidates Withdrew from Venezuelan Elections
Sunday, Dec 04, 2005

Caracas, Venezuela, December 4, 2005—Venezuela’s National Electoral Council announced that by 4pm on Saturday, when the deadline for withdrawing candidacies passed, only 10% of candidates for the National Assembly had withdrawn. That is, out 5,516 candidates, only 516 had requested the Electoral Council (CNE) to remove their names from the contest. Similarly, out of 355 parties and political organizations inscribed in the contest, only 18, or 5%, had withdrawn their candidacies from the contest.

Today, Venezuelans vote for 167 seats in the National Assembly, 12 for the Latin American parliament, and five for the Andean parliament. For the National Assembly, Venezuelans have two votes, one for a party list of candidates and one for an individual representative from their district. 40% of the National Assembly is then constituted in accordance to the percentages parties achieved in the party list vote. The other 60% are constituted by candidates who won a majority of votes in their respective districts.

Many ballots throughout the country will be unaffected by the last minute boycott of the 18 parties, explained CNE president Jorge Rodriguez yesterday. If just one candidate running on a party list does not withdraw his or her candidacy, the whole party’s candidacy remains in effect. All of the main parties that declared a boycott of the vote last week, such as AD, Copei, Proyecto Venezuela, and Primero Justicia, will remain on the ballot because less than half of their candidates withdrew their candidacies. According to Venezuelan electoral law, candidates must withdraw candidacies in person.

Rodriguez explained that if voters vote for a candidate who has withdrawn, then that vote will be counted as invalid.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1836

[papau]

1. Chávez's Grip Tightens as Rivals Boycott Vote

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/international/americas/05venez.html

December 5, 2005
Chávez's Grip Tightens as Rivals Boycott Vote
By JUAN FORERO
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Dec. 4 - Venezuela's firebrand president, Hugo Chávez, took overwhelming control of the National Assembly on Sunday after five major opposition parties boycotted a national election for all 167 congressional seats.

Venezuela's leftist government increased its slight majority to take nearly all the congressional seats, the ruling party said, as up to 75 percent of eligible voters stayed away from the polls.

The outcome will permit the National Assembly to change the Constitution easily, as well as enact a range of major changes supported by Mr. Chávez, in areas ranging from Venezuela's health system to the criminal code.

The withdrawal of the parties also ensured that Venezuela's opposition has, for all practical purposes, ceased to exist in an organized form, paving the way for an easy victory by Mr. Chávez for another six-year term in the election for president late next year. Mr. Chávez, first elected in 1998, has already served longer than any leader of a major Latin American country, except for Fidel Castro of Cuba.

"Chávez would have annihilated them anyway," Alberto Garrido, a critic of the government and an author of several books about the president, said by phone from Caracas. "Now, they are starting from scratch. There are people in the opposition, but the opposition leadership is in tumult, without a strategy. Tomorrow, Monday, they will not know what to do."<snip>

Of some 5,516 candidates running for office, about 556 dropped out - just over 10 percent but representing a vast majority of candidates from five major anti-Chávez parties. The boycott, coupled with heavy rains, prompted anti-government voters like Ángel Rodríguez, 46, a chauffeur, to decide not to vote.
<snip>
Jens Gould contributed reporting from Caracas, Venezuela, for this article.

[Zhade]

6. What a propagandistic headline!

HE'S NOT A FUCKING TYRANT, you neoliberal assholes!

(NYT, not you.)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. tightens his grip? What kind of bull is that?

almost 90% of the population supports Chavez. That is incredible.

And bush dares threaten invasions because he is not "democratic enough"?

The NYT is still suffering from rampant Bushistaism. They continue to feed off of the PR political spin that the White House wants us to read.

[IndianaGreen]

10. This is the same NY Times that told us Saddam had WMD

and that kept that neocon bitch Judith Miller on the payroll.

The NY Times is a capitalist organ of propaganda, defending capitalist interests throughout the world. Capitalists fear workers and peasants the most!

This is what the NY Times and the ruling elites it speaks for fear the most:



Latin America's political map could find itself being redrawn as 12 of the region's countries prepare for presidential elections between November 2005 and the end of 2006.

One of the key issues - being closely watched by Washington - is whether the recent left-wing trend in the region will continue. And, if it does, what will be the likely nature of any new left-leaning government. Will newly-elected leaders be of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez variety or of the moderate Brazilian President Lula variety?

Also long-awaited elections will decide the fate of three countries currently ruled by interim governments: Bolivia, Ecuador and Haiti.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456942/html/nn1page1.stm

[fshrink]

12. But the 25% turnout is still a problem.

Now that it's not only Caracas... Better than the 99% turnout of stalinist times though...

[papau]

8. It looks like heavy rain can stop a anti-Chavez vote - interesting :-)

:-)

[David__77]

9. Time to crack down on the coup-plotters in Venezuela.

The government and its allies need to attack all bastions of influence of the rightists--in the media, banking, agriculture and industry. Chavez needs to continue building a people's militia and constructing the Bolivarian circles and workers movement.

A series a constitutional amendments identifying Venezuela as a state in which the collective interests are put first should be approved and sent to the people for approval. Let the rightists boycott that vote too.

[Psephos]

11. Not only the rivals in boycott, but also the voters

Looks like voter turnout was under 30%, quite an embarrassment for Chavez.

Only a rabid true believer can find good in Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party claiming 114 seats in the newly expanded 167-member National Assembly. Allies of the party occupy the remaining 53, which means Chavez has 100% control of the Assembly now. Heh. I wonder who will speak truth to power now?

It will be interesting to see how this voter no-show and packed Assembly gets spun. As a "major triumph for the people," I'm sure.

Peace.

[Zynx]

2. That may be more than a little deceptive though.

Those 10% may constitute the bulk of Chavez's main opposition and hence their withdrawl would severely skew the vote. I don't have anything to back this up, but it is a possibility.

[1932]

3. Read again. All the members of a party have to withdraw in person or

their party remains on the ballot and voters can vote for them with their party vote (but a vote for an individual who has withdrawn on the individual part of the ballot wouldn't count).

Copei and some of those other parties are huge. With only 300 or so individuals withdrawing, it looks like Copei must have been on the party part of the ballot and some of the people who didn't withdraw still could have been elected.

So, the issue isn't that the opposition parties didn't have people on the ballot who could have been elected. The issue is that they didn't get elected and the reason is partly because the voters boycotted and partly because they clearly weren't going to win even if the voters didn't boycott (because Chavez is very popular and knows exactly how to speak to the poor).

[1932]

4. Read again. All the members of a party have to withdraw in person or

their party remains on the ballot and voters can vote for them with their party vote (but a vote for an individual who has withdrawn on the individual part of the ballot wouldn't count).

Copei and some of those other parties are huge. With only 300 or so individuals withdrawing, it looks like Copei must have been on the party part of the ballot and some of the people who didn't withdraw still could have been elected.

So, the issue isn't that the opposition parties didn't have people on the ballot who could have been elected. The issue is that they didn't get elected and the reason is partly because the voters boycotted and partly because they clearly weren't going to win even if the voters didn't boycott (because Chavez is very popular and knows exactly how to speak to the poor).

[chicagiana]

5. These actions are being directed from Washington ...

These folks were going to get their clocks cleaned. So rather than face a clear defeat, Washington urged them to withdraw so that they could score some talkng points on Chavez.

Why would the opposition listen to Washington??? Because, GW sponsored a coup attempt against Hugo Chavez. And they were probably told that this type of assistance wouldn't be possible in the future if they didn't play their part.

I don't think Bush will invade Venezuela. But he will use every other dirty trick in the CIA arsenal against him. Hugo really blind-sided GW Bush by offering fuel oil assistance to US Citizens after a Republican Congress cut heating aid.