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On Sunday, President Maduro’s United Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV) candidates won 308 of 335 municipal elections, a 92% triumph, including 21 of 23 state capitals and the Caracas Capital District.
“We have triumphed. Now we advance towards the triumph of national unity, the triumph of the renewal of hope,” said Maduro, adding:
“Today we can officially say that we have won 19 governorates, including Zulia, which is the most populous state in the country.”
“We’re ready to compete” in next year’s presidential election. Control over most municipalities boosts Maduro’s chance for reelection.
He blasted opposition several parties for boycotting Sunday elections, saying they disappeared from the political landscape, adding:
“A party that has not participated today and has called for the boycott of the elections can’t participate anymore.”
“That is the criterion that the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) has put forward, and I… support them.”
The proposal hasn’t yet been approved, Maduro unlikely to act unilaterally. Venezuela’s 2018 presidential election is months away, scheduled for next October.
Sunday turnout was 47%, National Electoral Council (CNE) Vice President Sandra Oblitas, saying
“(t)hese elections saw the participation of 9,139,564 voters – over a million lower than in 2013 with 10.6 million voters participating.”
Three parties in the opposition fascist coalition boycotted the vote. They’ve done it before when expecting to lose, irresponsibly crying foul.
Venezuela’s electoral process is the world’s best, shaming America’s money-controlled sham process. International observers called Sunday elections open, free and fair.
Council of Latin American Electoral Experts (CEELA) President Nicanor Moscoso said
“(w)e believe totally and absolutely in the results offered by the National Electoral Council because all the guarantees offered throughout the process were given. It’s a very good (turnout), within the (regional) average…”
Voting went smoothly nationwide, no significant irregularities reported.
The New York Times opposes Venezuelan Bolivarian social democracy, against it since begun under Hugo Chavez.
As expected, it criticized Sunday’s outcome, calling it unsurprising after Chavistas triumphed overwhelmingly in last October’s regional elections, winning 17 of 22 gubernatorial races, turnout highest in 15 years at over 61%.
PSUV candidates won a 54% majority, opposition fascists soundly defeated with 45%.
The Times: On Sunday,
“a broad but fractious alliance of opposition parties announced that it was boycotting the municipal contests to protest what it called a rigged, corrupt electoral system that favored the president and his party.”
Venezuelan elections are scrupulously open, free and fair, The Times unwilling to admit reality, instead claiming “many polling stations around the capital had barely a trickle of voters.”
9,139,564 voters nationwide is hardly “a trickle.” The Times invents reasons to denigrate Bolivarian fairness, supporting fascist rule instead – in America and worldwide, abroad under US control.
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the CRG, Correspondent of Global Research based in Chicago.
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
