Socialist movement attracts Venezuelan voters

GUARENAS, Venezuela—Two years ago voters in Miranda, bewildered by the decay of their once-prosperous nation, delivered a stinging defeat to the ruling socialist party by voting decisively for the opposition in parliamentary elections. But last week the state turned red again.

To Brayand Velasquez’s mind, it’s simple: While the government has provided subsidized homes and bags of food in a nation plagued by economic hardship, opposition politicians not in office or sidelined by the socialists have been mostly absent in resolving daily problems.

“They just give speeches on TV,” said Velasquez, a 30-year-old motorcycle taxi driver in the poor, gritty mountainside city of Guarenas.

Opposition leaders have disputed the surprise result of last Sunday’s elections, in which official election returns show government-backed candidates took 18 of the country’s 23 governorships. But one evident takeaway is that the socialist movement founded by the late President Hugo Chavez can still pull large numbers of voters to the polls.

If the data from the government-friendly National Electoral Council is correct, the opposition received nearly 3 million fewer votes than in 2015, while the ruling party largely maintained the more than 5 million votes it captured two years ago.

Not all that stems from ideological conviction. Some voted for the ruling party out of fear of losing a government job, others not wanting to miss out on a chance to live in one of thousands of new homes President Nicolas Maduro’s government is building for low-income families.

But the turnout for Maduro allies suggests that despite the president’s low approval ratings, crippling inflation and shortages of basic goods, many Venezuelans would still rather cast their ballot for the socialists than for the opposition.

Socialist leaders are hoping the unexpected win will boost support going into next year’s presidential election. And there are other factors favoring Chavez’s so-called Bolivarian movement: Deep fractures remain within the opposition camp; emigration by Venezuelans fed up with life under Maduro continues; and low crude prices are forecast to rise in 2018, which could ease the fiscal crisis for this heavily oil-dependent state.

“This election marks a Bolivarian rebirth,” said a triumphant Delcy Rodriguez, a Maduro loyalist and president of a newly installed constitutional assembly that has essentially unchecked powers.

Opposition leaders so far have presented what they say is evidence of ballot box tampering only in the eastern state of Bolivar. In Miranda and other states, they are pointing to maneuvers such as the voting center relocations and arguing that they depressed opposition turnout.