Chavismo is test this time in an election to choose the deputies of the National Assembly, governors and representatives of state legislatures
Douglas Gavras – Venezuelans return to the polls on Sunday (25), in the first vote since the contested presidential election that led to a third term of Nicolás Maduro last July, with various evidence of fraud.
Chavismo is test this time in an election to choose the deputies of the National Assembly, governors and representatives of state legislatures.
And again, it calls for nationalism to divert the focus of the political crisis and the worsening of social indicators: the regime launched a campaign to elect governor to Essequibo, a Guyana region that has been claimed by Caracas for more than a century.
According to the National Electoral Council of Venezuela, a regime -controlled body that declared the victory of Maduro in 2024 without presenting the electoral minutes, the 12 voting centers to choose the governor and the deputies of Essequibo will be installed in the state of Bolivar, neighboring territory, with about 21,000 registered voters – which 98.9% of them Venezuelans.
The dispute between the two countries is old. Guyana argues that an arbitral report in Paris established current borders in 1899, while Venezuela points out that an agreement signed in 1966 with the United Kingdom before the Guianenses conquered independence, nullifies the Paris report and proposes a negotiated solution.
The dictatorship sought a popular seal for the claim. In December 2023, he summoned a plebiscite in which the population spoke on the idea of attaching the territory. The Electoral Council announced that 96% of voters supported the idea of annexation.
Although the vote has contradicted the recommendation of the International Court of Justice, the theme stirs the nationalism of Venezuelans, and even opposition figures do not openly position themselves against it.
After the referendum, Parliament approved the transformation of Essequibo into the 24th state of the country, without any international recognition.
The Guyana Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested the CIJ the highest judicial body of the United Nations to “order Venezuela to refrain from any act within its sovereign territory,” which Maduro rejected.
“The Venezuelan people are determined to defend Essequibo and its energy resources, and May 25 is a transcendental election, we will elect a governor and a legislative body,” said Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s deputy at an event broadcast on state TV.
Amid opposition disagreements and dictatorships after the crisis with the 2024 election, Venezuelans will choose 24 governors (not counting thisquiba), 260 state legislators and 277 deputies for the National Assembly. The CNE announced that there will be 15,736 voting centers and 27,713 sessions.
The choice to participate or not in the election cracked the opponents. The anticheist leader María Corina Machado asked for a boycott, calling him “electoral farce.”
Last week, she reaffirmed that last year’s presidential elections were won by the opposition.
The opposing coalition PUD (Democratic Unit Platform) expelled two organizations from their ranks, after these forces made the decision to participate in the elections. “Unforgivable,” said Corina Machado, talking about the dissidents.
Henrique Capriles’s group was one of those who agreed to vie, but accuse Maduro of hindering the process on the grounds that there was no delivery of electoral banknotes and that the opposition could not advertise.
“They did not deliver the electoral ballot, did not put the information points, there is virtually no publicity,” he told the international press during a campaign event in the city of Maracaibo (near the Colombian border).
“I go to the National Assembly to be the voice of those who have no voice. To defend the workers, the retirees, the economy. Also to oppose what affects the citizen,” said Capriles, defending his party’s participation in the process.
The opposition also complains that the deadline for the election campaign was short, with no room for debates or rallies, which favors mature.
Already the governor party positioned candidates in all 23 states and in the Federal District covering Caracas.
During the process, Chavismo spoke, without evidence, in an alleged plan of attacks against embassies in Venezuela, attributing responsibility to groups that would try to sabotage the elections.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello indicated that, in addition to embassies, these attacks targeted other strategic locations such as hospitals and schools.
One of the detainees on charges of joining the alleged conspiracy network was the opponent Juan Pablo Guanipa, ally of María Corina.
The first measure taken was the suspension for at least a week of all flights in Colombia. Caracas attributed the financing of this alleged operation to former Colombian presidents Álvaro Uribe, Juan Manuel Santos, Andrés Pastrana and Iván Duque.
In this scenario, the Venezuelan voter seems to opt for apathy. A survey by Meganalisis in mid -May projected record abstention, with 84.9% not participating in the process. Other institutes estimate that participation will be around 35%.
In 2020, in the last parliamentary elections in Venezuela, with accusations of irregularities by the opposition and the impediment of candidates, the abstention rate was 70%.
The PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) obtained 253 of the 277 chairs in Parliament.
