Venezuela’s opposition holds informal plebiscite defying Maduro
Even expats turning out • President, campaigning for new assembly to rewrite country’s constitution, calls vote illegal and meaningless
CARACAS/MADRID/ROME (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition held an unofficial referendum on Sunday to increase pressure on President Nicolas Maduro as he seeks to create a legislative superbody that his adversaries call the consolidation of a dictatorship.
The symbolic poll, which also asked voters if they want early elections, is intended to further dent Maduro’s legitimacy amid a crippling economic crisis and three months of anti-government protests that have led to nearly 100 deaths.
The opposition cast the vote, which began at 7 a.m. at some 2,000 centers around the country, as an act of civil disobedience to be followed by “zero hour,” a possible reference to a national strike or other escalated actions against Maduro.
But the vote does not appear to augur a short-term change of government or a solution to the country’s political stalemate.
Maduro, 54, called Sunday’s plebiscite illegal and meaningless. Instead, the leftist leader is campaigning for an official July 30 vote for the new assembly, which will be able to rewrite the constitution and dissolve state institutions.
“[Even with] rain, thunder or lightning, Sunday’s poll will go ahead!” said opposition leader Henrique Capriles in a Friday evening broadcast. “We Venezuelans are going out to vote for the future, the fatherland and the freedom of Venezuela.”
Voters will be asked three questions: if they reject the constitutional assembly; if they want the armed forces to defend the existing constitution; and if they want elections before Maduro’s term in office ends in 2018.
Some public employees, under government pressure not to participate in opposition events, are seeking creative ways to vote without being noticed.
The vote will also include participation of the swelling ranks of Venezuelans who have moved abroad to escape the OPEC nation’s increasingly dire economic situation.
The opposition was hoping millions would turn out and promised the results would be available on Sunday evening.
But the opposition faces some major obstacles.
It will not have access to traditional electoral infrastructure for the hastily convened plebiscite, and the elections council – which the opposition calls a pawn of Maduro – is simultaneously holding a testrun for the July 30 vote.
Also, state telecommunications regulator Conatel has ordered radio and TV stations not to use the word “plebiscite” on air and has told them to pull opposition ads for the vote, according to Venezuela’s main organization of media workers.
A high turnout would reflect widespread national dissatisfaction with Maduro and boost the opposition campaign to remove him, while low attendance would give the ruling Socialist Party a boost for the constitutional assembly.
Government officials say the plebiscite violates laws requiring elections to be organized by the elections council.
“We are not going to let the Venezuelan Right wing impose themselves and harm the people,” said Socialist Party Vice President Diosdado Cabello during a Saturday rally for the constitutional assembly.
Venezuelan expatriates also began voting in hundreds of cities worldwide on Sunday in a unofficial plebiscite that aims to challenge President Nicolas Maduro and his plans to rewrite the constitution.
With improvised polling stations in more than 80 countries, Venezuelan expatriates were predicted to turn out in force for the vote, which came amid three months of anti-government protests that have led to nearly 100 deaths.
Protesters say Maduro is seeking to consolidate a dictatorship in the oil-rich nation and must be stopped before critical food and medicine shortages worsen.
The symbolic vote was designed to preempt official elections on July 30 to call a constituent assembly, which will be able to rewrite the constitution and dissolve state institutions.
In central Madrid, where several high-profile critics of the government are among the 30,000 Venezuelans expected to cast their ballot throughout the day, volunteers manned polling stations amid a festive atmosphere.
Mitzy Capriles, wife of former Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma who is currently in prison in Venezuela on charges of conspiracy, said that Venezuelan expatriates were united in rejecting the current government.
“With this (vote) we are telling Nicolas Maduro once again that he is the cause of the problems facing the country today,” Ledezma told reporters after casting her vote in Madrid.
In Rome, Leopoldo Lopez Gil, father of prominent opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez who was recently released to house arrest following mass protests, said the peaceful nature of the vote was in contrast to violence used by the government in Venezuela.
“Today we are gathering peacefully to send a clear message that [the Venezuelan government] needs to listen... and to open its eyes and see what is happening and what the people of Venezuela want,” Lopez told reporters.
In Madrid, Audrey Lopez, 49, who has lived in Spain for 10 years, was among volunteers staffing the polling station.
“I haven’t been back to Venezuela in four years. What I save on the journey I send to my family in food, medicine or hygiene products because they are either very expensive or non-existent there,” she said.
“With this vote we want to say to Maduro that Venezuela can’t wait. We want elections now. The people want him out.”
Carlos Morazzani, a 50-yearold engineer who came to Spain three years ago after his company failed, said most Venezuelans rejected plans to overhaul the constitution.
“The great majority of Venezuelans are against the government,” he said. “Venezuela is being held hostage by 10 or 15% of the country.”
A recent survey by pollster Datanalisis found 67% of Venezuelans oppose the new assembly to rewrite the constitution, which was reformed by late leader Hugo Chavez in 1999.
The vote came against the backdrop of near daily opposition protests, in many of which masked youths with stones, Molotov cocktails and homemade mortars have battled riot forces using tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.
The unrest has caused fatalities among both demonstrators and security forces – mostly from gunshots – as well as hundreds of arrests and thousands of injuries since April.
Maduro has repeatedly refused to recognize the authority of the National Assembly since the opposition won it in a 2015 landslide election, which his critics call evidence he is eroding democratic institutions in order to retain power.
The former union organizer says the country is victim of an “economic war” and that opposition protests are an effort to overthrow him with US connivance.