December 10, 2017: Municipal Elections in Venezuela The Electoral Process On December 10, 2017, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will hold municipal elections for 335 mayoralties as well as a regional election in the state of Zulia, which will vote on the governorship. The electoral registry in Venezuela includes 19,740,846 eligible votes, including those in the Capital District. This election will rely on 14,383 voting centers, which will have 32,775 voting booths. A total of 1,568 people are running in the mayoral elections, and another five people are the candidates for the Zulia governorship. These will be the nation’s third electoral process in the past 5 months. Previously, Venezuelans voted for the 545 members of the National Constituent Assembly on July 30, 2017, and for 23 governors on October 15, 2017.
The Election By the Numbers Mayoralties at stake 335 Electoral Registry 19,740,84 6 Voting Centers 14,384 Registered Parties 72 Voter Turnout (Average) 43.43% Voter Abstention (Average) 56.56% Political Parties These municipal elections will see candidates running from 72 parties with political leanings ranging from supporting the government, to supporting the opposition, to supporting neither. The parties include: The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Homeland for All (PPT), the Committee for Independent Political-Electoral Organization (Copei), Progressive Vanguard (AP), Movement towards Socialism (MAS, A New Vision for My Country (Nuvipa), the People’s Electoral Movement (MEP), Independents for Progress (IPP), Unified Currents to Reach the Movement for Revolutionary Action (Tupamaro), Venezuelan Popular Unity (UPV), For Social Democracy (Podemos), Community Party of Venezuela (PCV), New Revolutionary Paths (NCR), the Authentic Reformist Organization (ORA), Alliance for Change (AC), People’s Political Unit 89 (UPP89) and A New Time with You (UNTC), among others. Turnout and Abstention Over the past 17 years, voter turnout in Venezuela’s municipal elections has been the following: 23.8% (2000), 30.82% (2005), 60.2% (2008) and 58.92% (2013), for an average of 43.43%. These figures demonstrate that voter turnout has had two stages: during the first years it was low, but as of 2008 it grew significantly and overall, turnout can be considered to be relatively low.
Between 2000 and 2017, voter abstention was the following: 76.2%1 (2000), 69.18%2 (2005), 39.8%3 (2008) and 41.08%4 (2013), which can be considered relatively high and has an average of 56.56%.
Year
Turnout
2000 2005 2008 2013 Average
23.8% 30.82% 60.2% 58.92% 43.43%
Abstentio n 76.2% 69.18% 39.8% 41.08% 56.56%
International Accompaniment On November 3, 2017, Venezuela’s National Electoral Council and the Council of Latin American Electoral Experts (CEELA) signed an agreement for an international accompaniment mission for these municipal elections. This accompaniment is to take part in three phases of the electoral process: prior to, during and after the elections. This mission will then present a report after the electoral event. It is important to note that these electoral experts have participated in Venezuelan elections since 2004, and that CEELA signed a Framework Cooperation Agreement with the Organization of American States in 2010. Polls These elections will occur just over a month after the Great Patriotic Pole (a coalition of government supporting parties) won 78% of the country’s governorships to the opposition’s 22%. In this scenario, analysts and pollsters of different political leanings have made the following evaluations: Pollster Hinterlaces found that 59% of Venezuelans believe that these elections will contribute to peace and stability in the country, while 77% believe that a sector of the opposition made an incorrect decision in not participating. For his part, Luis Vicente León, the President of pollster Datanálisis, expressed that the opposition is coming into these elections fractured, which will result in an induced abstention within its own ranks as well as abstention higher than predicted. Nevertheless, opposition spokespersons have affirmed that their interest is in presidential elections. Finally, this will be the 23rd election in the past 18 years in Venezuela, where yet again the people will reaffirm their democracy and demonstrate the solidity of their institutions in a peaceful electoral environment that has never generated any sort of tension.
1 http://www.cne.gob.ve/web/documentos/estadisticas/e001.pdf 2 http://www.cne.gob.ve/int_divulgacion_resultados/documentos/abstencion.pdf 3 El Modelo Electoral Venezolano, Consejo Nacional Electoral, Venezuela (2016). 4 http://www.cne.gob.ve/web/sala_prensa/noticia_detallada.php?id=3280