Ahead of December 6 elections

Monday, November 30, 2015

As Venezuela parliamentary campaigns enter final week, division reflected in polls

CARACAS — With one week to go until legislative elections in Venezuela, the opposition find themselves 15 points ahead, according to a survey released yesterday by Venebarómetro.

The poll showed 42.7 percent for the opposition and 27.6 percent for the ruling party, according to the survey with a sample of 1,200

respondents.

In Venezuela, polls rarely mimic final results with large differences in the figures presented by each entity according to their loyalties, blurring the landscape.

Almost 19.5 million Venezuelans are eligible to vote in the December 6 elections to renew the 167 National Assembly seats, currently controlled by the ruling party with 100 seats.

In the last few days of campaigning, dozens of opposition candidates yesterday held a rally in Caracas called the “Freedom for All” campaign.

Opposition supporters shouted slogans for freedom and released white dove balloons and a peace sign after an electoral season marred by violence and intimidation, culminating in the shocking gunning down of Luis Manuel Díaz, secretary of the opposition Democratic Action (AD) party in Guaríco state during a campaign rally last week.

Meanwhile, the “Chavist” ruling party and its supporters gathered throughout the country to review their “1x10 lists” strategy to ensure their candidates’ victory.

“On you, comrades, rests the outcome of December 6, on the organization of our machinery... all this together will bring the force for the Bolivarian Revolution (to win),” said Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly and ruling-party candidate for re-election.

“The right says this is opportunism... they have no boss, no leader, no reason beyond greed and ambition over everyone,” he said.

President Nicolás Maduro, through Twitter, called on government supporters to “consolidate” the “1x10 lists” in order to achieve the “perfect victory” in the elections.

Maduro’s United Socialist Party (PSUV) yesterday cited other surveys that show them as favourites, with a “firm” 40 percent expected to vote for the official party, ruling out an opposition victory.

However, with the world’s highest inflation, second-highest homicide rate, and a deepening economic crisis, the Venezuelan people are becoming tired of 16 years under the same government.

Maduro may lose the elections if the votes are added at the national level, but he can still preserve the ruling party’s current parliamentary majority, said Oscar Schémel of Hinterlaces polling firm.

“Chavismo can get less than half of the votes and still win the parliamentary majority,” warned Schémel, on a weekly television programme hosted by former vice president José Vicente Rangel on the Televen private channel.

He added that the opposition will be favoured by a “punishment vote” of national discontent.

Maduro, who took power after the death of the leader Hugo Chávez in 2013, has admitted that these are the “most difficult” elections in 16 years of Chavism, and stated that his party will win the vote “by any means,” in Sunday’s elections.

— Herald with agencies