President Nicolas Maduro was emphatic. “I place my fate in the hands of the Venezuelan people, he declared, Tuesday, December 2, in Caracas. If the opposition wins the National Assembly again, I quit the presidency, I leave. ” But Hugo Chavez’s successor has little to worry about. With the main opposition parties having decided to boycott the legislative elections on Sunday, December 6, the United Socialist Party (PSUV) should regain control of the Assembly which, since 2015, had been in the hands of the opposition.
It was the last rebel institution with Chavista power. In a country ruined by twenty years of erratic economic management and suffocated by American sanctions, Nicolas Maduro seems certain of completing his mandate. His son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, known as “Nicolasito” (Little Nicolas), 30, is one of the 14,000 candidates who will compete for the 277 seats in the unicameral chamber on Sunday.
Some 20 million voters are called to the polls. In total, 103 political parties – including 36 of national scope – present candidates. Several personalities and small opposition parties stood out from the boycott decided by the major parties, without succeeding in presenting joint candidatures. On the left, the Communist Party, which has become very critical of the government of Nicolas Maduro, has formed an alliance with two small parties, Tupamaros and Patria para todos. While recalling ” that a surprise is by nature unpredictable ”, Luis Vicente Leon, director of the Datanalisis polling institute, considers “That none of these initiatives seem likely to threaten the electoral supremacy of the PSUV”.
“Who does not vote does not eat”
The power however struggles to mobilize its electorate. According to Datanalisis, the participation rate should not exceed 34%. “We’re too busy surviving to want to vote, sighs Lisbeth Ochoa, a high school teacher in the city of Valencia. But the government is putting the pressure on and people, if they do not go to vote, are afraid of losing their jobs or of no longer receiving the weekly food crate that allows them not to starve. ” On Monday, during a campaign meeting, the vice-president of the PSUV, Diosdado Cabello, made himself clear: “He who does not vote does not eat”, he said three times, mockingly.
The economic recession had turned into disaster long before the pandemic. According to the IMF, the country’s GDP could drop another 25% this year. More than 90% of Venezuelans today live below the poverty line. “Chavismo obviously no longer seduces, but the opposition, more divided than ever, does not convince. The election is seen as a contest for power between two camps which do not care about solving the people’s problems ”, summarizes Ignacio Avalos, from the Ojo electoral organization (Electoral Eye).
You have 58.9% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
