Legislative in Venezuela: a voting day promising to be little followed
The legislative elections are being held this Sunday, December 6 in Venezuela.
© AFP / CRISTIAN HERNANDEZ
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
277 seats at stake this Sunday and 24,400 legislative candidates in Venezuela.
The PSUV, the party of President Nicolas Maduro, intends to recover the National Assembly, the last institution in the country that it does not control.
In 2015, it was the opposition that won a two-thirds majority, but could not legislate afterwards, because court decisions supported by the government had completely paralyzed it.
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With our special correspondent in Caracas,
Marie Normand
Much of this opposition refuses to participate in the poll.
27 parties call on their supporters to abstain.
They believe that the election will be neither fair nor equitable, in particular because the leadership of the electoral authorities was not elected as required by the Constitution and is almost entirely made up of people close to the party in power.
This opposition, led by Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself interim president two years ago, is organizing a concurrent consultation, a kind of referendum from Monday, to demonstrate, in any case, that is its objective, that the Venezuelans reject this ballot.
A tired population
Risky strategy since the popularity of the Leader of the Opposition has declined considerably.
The population is tired of a political crisis that never ends.
Tired of 7 years of recession, 3 years of hyperinflation.
To sanction Venezuela as a whole is to sanction the 25 or 26 million people who live there.
This affects the Venezuelan who every day needs to eat and find medicine.
Maduro, he will always find something to eat and heal himself, just like the elite in power.
Luis Oliveros, economist, on international sanctions against Venezuela
In the poorest neighborhoods of the Caracas region, many opposition supporters announce that they will vote for this small part of the opposition which stands apart, participates in the ballot, and is described as a traitor by Juan Guaido.
Despite all this election arouses little enthusiasm and the polling institute which refers here, Datanalisis, expects a low participation rate.
This is also confirmed by Jesus González, political scientist and professor of political science at the Central University of Venezuela.
He explains why this election should not attract a lot of voters: “
It's a very uncompetitive election, which usually generates a low turnout.
Added to this is the impact of the global pandemic, few people are willing to go and vote.
"
For him, the PSUV should not be able to reach two thirds of the seats in the Assembly to improve the political climate: “
The representativeness of the new Assembly will be all the more called into question.
For the good of the country, it would be good if the ruling party could not win two-thirds of the seats in this House, which would force it to negotiate the division of public powers.
In a way, that would put the country back on the path to democracy which is now so damaged
”.
►Also listen: International report - Venezuela, the opposition in dispersed order for the legislative elections
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