The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, seized the last institution that escaped his power by taking control of the Parliament during the legislative elections, Sunday, December 6, marked by a very strong abstention and rejected internationally.
The coalition that supports President Maduro, the Great Patriotic Pole, obtained 67.7% of the 5.2 million votes cast, announced Monday, December 7, the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Indira Alfonzo.
The fraction of the opposition which took part in the ballot won 18% of the vote, she added. Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who considers Mr. Maduro’s power to be illegitimate, called for a boycott of the elections. The president of the CNE did not specify the distribution of the 277 seats which were submitted to the vote of the 20 million registered.
The abstention reached 69%, the call of the main opposition parties to ” stay at home “ having been massively followed. For the leader of the opposition, Juan Guaido, self-proclaimed interim president and supported by more than 50 countries, led by the United States, “The majority rejection of the Venezuelan people was obvious (…) Venezuela has turned its back on Maduro and his fraud “.
In the 2015 legislative elections, where the opposition ended fifteen years of Chavist hegemony in the unicameral Parliament, the turnout was 71% (66.45% in 2010).
“Masquerade” and elections not “credible”
The United States will “Continue to recognize” the opponent Juan Guaido as “Interim president” from Venezuela, US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo said on Monday. “The international community cannot let Maduro, who is in power illegitimately after stealing the 2018 election, profit from a second stolen election”, he warned in a statement, reaffirming that the legislative elections of the day before, boycotted by Juan Guaido, were a “Masquerade”.
“A zombie has spoken! “, replied Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza. “Hopefully very soon diplomacy will return to the State Department and the White House”, he added, referring to the electoral defeat of President Donald Trump.
In addition to Washington, the European Union (EU) has also announced that it does not recognize this result, due to an electoral process considered little “Credible”. Following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said:
“The lack of respect for political pluralism, the disqualification and prosecution of opposition leaders do not allow the EU to recognize this electoral process as credible, inclusive or transparent, and its results as representative of the will of the Venezuelan people . “
The day before, the Organization of American States (OAS) had already announced that it did not recognize the validity of these legislative measures that the European Union had called, unsuccessfully, to postpone, neither estimating them nor “Transparent” or “Credible”. And Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo on Monday called the vote “Electoral farce”, where the “Dictatorship” by Nicolas Maduro tried to “Legitimize” his power.
Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama also communicated on Sunday that they would not recognize the results of these elections. Russia, in a statement released Monday, for its part praised “transparent” legislative.
Popular consultation
Except in the openly Chavist neighborhoods of Caracas, the polling stations were very uncrowded throughout the day. Elsewhere in the country, the lines were longer to fill up with gasoline than to vote, reflecting the severe crisis facing the former Latin America’s largest oil producer.
The country is in the grip of US economic sanctions aimed at overthrowing Hugo Chavez’s successor (1999-2013), including an oil embargo, since April 2019, which has resulted in gasoline shortages.
Stifled by runaway inflation (+ 4000% over one year), paralyzed in endless queues to fill up with gasoline, tired of the lack of water and gas supplies, and exasperated by the brutal cuts of power, Venezuela is at bay.
Juan Guaido, president of Parliament since 2015, calls for “Amplify” these sanctions. A popular consultation begins Monday, on which he intends to rely to extend his mandate beyond its expiration date, January 5.
By choosing once again to boycott a ballot that he considers without guarantee, after the presidential election of 2018 or the vote on a Constituent Assembly in 2017, Mr. Guaido played his all-out with this consultation with uncertain effects. The Leader of the Opposition, whose popularity has been eroded, is nevertheless confident: “I have more than optimism, I have certainties. “
Nicolas Maduro for his part called the opposition to “Abandon the extremist path” for “To call with one voice for the lifting of all sanctions from Joe Biden’s new government of the United States”.
