Venezuela opposition threatens to pull out of election
VENEZUELA’S opposition 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 President Nicolás 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 Angel Oropeza told a press conference 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 coincide 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.
“This premature and unconditional event . . . is just a government show to pretend a legitimacy that it does not have, in the midst of the agony and suffering of Venezuelans,” Oropeza said.
Without a rival in sight, Maduro seems certain to win re-election despite opinion polls showing a 75 percent unpopularity rating among Venezuelans angered by a worsening political and economic crisis. Leading opponents have been barred from 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.”
Still, the MUD appeared to leave the door ajar in the hope of international pressure for change.
Among the opposition’s demands is that the election takes place in the “second half of 2018,” that it be held under the auspices of a “balanced” National Electoral Council, and in the presence of independent international observers to monitor the polls. “We challenge the Maduro government to be measured against the people in real elections”
“The MUD is virtually liquidated, which means that the opposition stands discredited for not having visualised the situation and proposed a proactive strategy,” political scientist Luis Salamanca said.
Seijas agreed. “If the MUD does not have a plan, if in the next two months it fails to articulate the reactivation of civil society, it seems to me that it will disappear,” he said
Maduro’s strategy now lies in delivering a “coup de grace” to the opposition by calling for snap parliamentary elections to finish off an unprepared MUD, said Seijas. The vote for the oppositiondominated parliament is scheduled for late 2020 but Diosdado Cabello, the powerful number two of Maduro’s socialist party, said the legislative polls could be held on April 22, the same day as the presidential election.