Jonah Gindin & Robin Nieto
Despite rumours that Venezuela's right-wing opposition would boycott the regional elections scheduled for October, on August 24, at a meeting of labour leaders belonging to the social-democratic Accion Democratica, secretary general Henry Ramos Allup announced that AD would participate.
Opposition governors and mayors are concerned because, with the comfortable victory of President Hugo Chavez in the recall referendum on August 15 — in every single state — they are fighting an uphill battle just to maintain the positions they already have. Of the eight states currently aligned clearly with the opposition, five voted "no" by a wide margin, the three others by smaller margins.
Some small opposition parties, such as Alianza Bravo Pueblo and Un Solo Pueblo have already announced that they intend to boycott the regional elections. Unlike the former governing parties Accion Democratica and Copei, they have no governor or mayor posts to lose.
Opposition umbrella-group, the Democratic Coordinator, is still claiming that President Hugo Chavez's comfortable victory in the August 15 recall referendum was fraudulent, despite an audit conducted by Venezuela's National Election Council (CNE), the Atlanta-based Carter Center, and the Organization of American States (OAS) that confirmed the original count of an overwhelming "no" vote.
Their energies focused on making accusations of fraud, the opposition has been neglecting the regional elections that were, until August 24, scheduled for September 26.
Yet Accion Democratica and several other parties that currently hold governerships and mayorships across the country are refusing to abandon the regional elections in order to protest the referendum results. Responding to calls by some elements of the opposition for a national strike to protest the alleged fraud, Allup noted, "they are not abandoning anyone because they don't represent anyone, but go to the opposition governors and mayors and tell them that in this moment you have decided that they must leave 25 states and 330 municipalities in the hands of the thieves of this government".
On August 25, opposition governors and mayors met to declare they would also participate in the regional elections. However, they bridged their continued cries of fraud against the CNE with the issue of the upcoming elections by insisting that votes be counted manually. Eduardo Lapi, the governor of the state of Yaracuy, and a member of the opposition to Chavez, said, "I will accept the use of voting-machines for voters to express their opinions, but the counting should be manual and public".
"I am willing to give up my position if I lose", Lapi continued, "as soon as the votes have been counted one by one".
Meanwhile, the United States has accepted the results of the recent audit, which shows that Chavez's mandate was ratified by more than 59% of voters.
"In our view, the results of that audit are consistent with the results announced by the National Electoral Council on August 16 and we understand that the electoral council will certify the final results on August 25", State Department representative Adam Ereli said on August 24.
The US government congratulated Venezuelans for their dedication to the democratic process. The spokesperson for the US State Department said that the opposition should present its concerns and charges of fraud to the OAS. "If the opposition does have concerns, if they do have evidence, additional evidence that has not been considered, that has not been weighed or taken into account, then they need to present that. Otherwise, it's time to move on", Ereli said, adding that the US wants to dispel doubts expressed by the opposition, which leads to the polarisation of the country, "which is in nobody's interest".
The State Department said that it had no reason to accept the charges of fraud claimed by Venezuelan opposition leaders, given the audit conducted by the OAS and the Carter Center.
[Reprinted from Venezuela Analysis .]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, September 1, 2004.
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