Opposition denounces ‘attempted coup’ as Maduro calls for snap legislative elections
Venezu el a’ sopposit ioncontrol ledleg isla tu re has branded the government’s plan to hold elections for the assembly two years early an “attempted coup.”
The vote for the National Assembly is not scheduled to be held until late 2020, but Diosdado Cabello, the powerful number two of President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist party, said the legislative polls could be held on April 22, the same day as the presidential election. For the legislature, now all but powerless, the proposal indicates the “totalitarian intent” of Maduro’s government to control “all public powers through a mega electoral simulation.”
“This is a decision for the National Constituent Assembly,” Cabello told state television VTV on Tuesday.
The opposition gained control of the parliament in December 2015 elections, but has seen its power usurped by the Constituent Assembly, which has assumed full legislative powers in Venezuela since it was created by Maduro last year. To date, it has rubber-stamped Maduro’s decisions.
A nalysts say Maduro’s government wants to bring forward the legislative poll for the same reason as the presidential election, to take advantage of divisions within the opposition coalition.
The opposition had already announced Wednesday it would not participate in April 22 presidential elections without guarantees that it would be free and fair. It said doing so would lend “an appearance of legitimacy” to fraudulent polls designed to hand a second six-year term to Maduro.
“Do not count on the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), or the people, to endorse what until now is only a fraudulent and illegitimate simulation of the presidential election,” opposition coordinator Ángel Oropeza told a press conference called to announce the result of weeks of opposition deliberations.
Maduro retorted that the elections would go ahead in April “with or without” the opposition coalition, and said he was also seeking to bring forward legislative elections by nearly two years to coinci- de with the presidential poll.
“We are going to the elections come rain, shine or lightning, with or without the MUD,” said Maduro, adding that he would also propose bringing forward the legislative vote – normally scheduled for 2020 – to “renew” the opposition-dominated parliament.
The opposition has accused the leftist president of engineering a second term for himself by bringing forward the presidential election from December.
CERTAINTY
Without a rival in sight, Maduro seems certain to win reelection despite opinion polls showing a 75-percent unpopularity rating among Venezuelans angered by a worsening political and economic crisis, causing widespread food and medicine shortages. Leading opponents have been barred from standing in the election.
Ironically, according to Felix Seijas, head of polling firm Delphos, “Maduro is probably at his weakest moment, but he’s drawing strength from the weakness, mistakes, and the lack of unity and coherence of the opposition, which is what gives him oxygen.”
The four main parties in the MUD – First Justice, Popular Will, Democratic Action and the New Era party – have long seemed inclined to boycott the April 22 vote. Some opposition leaders, such as former parliamentary chairman Henry Ramos Allup, have presidential aspirations, while another, Henri Falcón, also appears willing to register his candidacy. Neither attended the press conference.
“Do not count on the Democratic Unity Roundtable, or the people, to endorse what until now is only a fraudulent and illegitimate simulation of the presidential election.”