Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2005
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Parliamentary elections were held in
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
on 4 December 2005 to elect the 167 deputies to the
National Assembly of Venezuela The National Assembly ( es, Asamblea Nacional) is the legislature for Venezuela that was first elected in 2000. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who were elected by a "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vo ...
, twelve deputies to the
Latin American Parliament The Latin American Parliament (''Parlatino'') is a regional, permanent organization composed by the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a consultative assembly similar to the early European Parliament. Currently the institution ...
and five deputies to the
Andean Parliament The Andean Parliament is the governing and deliberative body of the Andean Community. It was created on October 25, 1979, in La Paz (Bolivia), through the Constitutive Treaty signed by the chancellors of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Vene ...
. Several days prior to the elections, five opposition parties unexpectedly withdrew, shortly after a dispute over the voting process had apparently been resolved with the support of the Organization of American States (OAS). The opposition had been expected to get around a third of the Assembly seats, or even less; the withdrawal meant the opposition were scarcely represented in the parliament at all, as the opposition parties which did not withdraw failed to win any seats. 114 seats went to the President's
Fifth Republic Movement The Fifth Republic Movement (Spanish: ''Movimiento V uintaRepública'', MVR) was a socialist political party in Venezuela. It was founded in July 1997, following a national congress of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, to support the ca ...
(MVR) – up from 86,''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', 5 December 2005
Chavez Allies Are Poised To Solidify Their Majority
/ref> with the remaining 53 going to "smaller pro-Chávez parties as well as to independents and representatives of some social groups that support the government". Both the Organization of American States (OAS) and the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
sent delegations to observe the elections. In the runup to the election, there were concerns about the use of digital fingerprint scanners as part of the voting process. On 28 November the National Electoral Council (CNE), in a decision brokered by the OAS, announced that it would not use the controversial machines. Despite this, several days later five opposition parties withdrew from the elections. "In particular, the EU stated the CNE's decision to eliminate the digital fingerprint devices from the voting process was timely, effective, and constructive, and noted with surprise the opposition's withdrawal just four days before the election." The OAS criticized the withdrawal, saying that democracy requires an opposition committed to the electoral process. Both the EU and the OAS noted a widespread distrust of the National Electoral Council. "The OAS delegation noted that there remains a distrust of the CNE on the part of a significant segment of the population in terms of the origin and composition of the CNE and the perception that its actions lack transparency and impartiality." The OAS recommended democratic discussion of various aspects of the electoral process to improve trust in the system. The election proceeded largely without incident, although three small bombs were exploded in Caracas, injuring one police officer.


Campaign


Pre-election polls

"In the lead-up to the December 2005 election, observers predicted that the opposition would struggle to win one-third of the seats in the Assembly and that the pro-Chávez parties would win a two-thirds majority control of the legislature."Mark Sullivan, Congressional Research Service, 28 July 2009
Venezuela: Political Conditions and U.S. Policy
(Archived at)


Electoral process audit

Just weeks before the elections, an audit was made in presence of the National Electoral Council (CNE),
OAS OAS or Oas may refer to: Chemistry * O-Acetylserine, amino-acid involved in cysteine synthesis Computers * Open-Architecture-System, the main user interface of Wersi musical keyboards * OpenAPI Specification (originally Swagger Specification) ...
international observers and several political parties. During the audit, the opposition started claiming that the electoral machines recorded the sequence of the votes, while fingerprint scanners recorded the information of each voter. However, though the fingerprint scanners were altogether not connected to and in different places than the voting machines, and the lines of voters at each of the machine groups were totally unrelated, the opposition put forward the case that it was possible to unscramble the information, stating that cross-matching the data between the two machines could potentially show the voting details of those who voted. The reconstruction of this data is considered possible by some characters, allegedly due to the requirement of access to the voting machines and knowledge of the password. As an extra measure of reassurance, the CNE agreed to format the data held on the voting machines as soon as these finished transmitting their precinct totals to the CNE. As long as every voting machine also printed its precinct totals, it was easy for all involved parties to check the validity of the data as reported in both instances, the printed precinct totals and the partial results reported in the CNE tallying center. Both the Organization of American States (OAS) and the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
sent delegations to observe the elections. On 28 November the National Electoral Council (CNE), in a decision brokered by the OAS, announced that it would not use the controversial machines. The CNE stood by its claim that the fingerprint scanners were not usable to identify the votes. The same devices had been used on the 2004 recall referendum, and the state governors' elections that same year.


Political parties' withdrawal

Despite the CNE concession on the use of fingerprint scanners, five opposition parties withdrew from the elections. "The move surprised election officials, and some reports indicate that international observers were unhappy that the opposition had reneged on a commitment to participate in the elections if the digital fingerprint machines were not used." "In particular, the EU stated the CNE's decision to eliminate the digital fingerprint devices from the voting process was timely, effective, and constructive, and noted with surprise the opposition's withdrawal just four days before the election." The OAS criticized the withdrawal, saying that democracy requires an opposition committed to the electoral process. By the Friday before the elections, five opposition political parties had withdrawn from the election: Democratic Action (''Acción Democrática''), COPEI (''Social Christian Party of Venezuela''), Project Venezuela (''Proyecto Venezuela''),
Justice First The Justice First ( es, Primero Justicia) is a centre-right political party in Venezuela. Founded in 1992 as a civil association, it became a political party in 2000. Henrique Capriles was the candidate of the party in 2013 general election. ...
(''Primero Justicia''), and
A New Era A New Era ( es, Un Nuevo Tiempo, UNT) is a centre-left political party in Venezuela. It received 11% of the vote in the 2008 regional elections. The party arose in Zulia State, Venezuela's most populous, and remains far stronger in its home r ...
(''Un Nuevo Tiempo''). These political parties represented the majority of the opposition forces in the country.
Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
José Vicente Rangel José Vicente Rangel Vale (10 July 1929 – 18 December 2020) was a Venezuelan politician and journalist. He ran for president three times in the 1970s and 1980s and later supported Hugo Chávez. He served under Chávez as Minister of Foreign ...
declared that "they know that they are defeated because they too read the surveys and know that if they participate they will have a poor representation." He also stated that the
U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other ...
, through their embassy in Caracas, was responsible for the withdrawals. Venezuelanalysis.com, 29 April 2005
Three Key Venezuelan Opposition Parties Declare Withdrawal from Elections
/ref> ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' noted that "The opposition decision appeared to be aimed at appealing to international support and discrediting Venezuela's government, which has strong approval ratings."
Juan Forero Juan Forero is the South America bureau chief for ''The Wall Street Journal''. He was previously ''The Washington Posts correspondent for Colombia and Venezuela and ''The New York Times Bogotá bureau chief. Early life and education Forero ...
, ''The New York Times'', 5 December 2005
"Chávez's Grip Tightens as Rivals Boycott Vote"
/ref> José Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director of
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, was quoted as saying "It's really hard to understand what exactly the political opposition leadership has in mind. But certainly it is not going to help them to present themselves as victims that deserve solidarity from the international community. With these kinds of tactics I don't think they'll gain any ground." The deadline for candidate withdrawal was Saturday, 3 December, at 4:00 pm. The CNE announced that not all of the boycotting political parties formally withdrew, meaning that only 10.08% of the candidates were officially out of the elections. The withdrawals left most opposition parties outside the election. Movement Towards Socialism (''Movimiento al Socialismo''),
Red Flag Party The Red Flag Party ( es, Partido Bandera Roja) is a communist party in Venezuela. Formed in 1970 by anti-revisionist members of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), the party initially supported the ideology of Enver Hoxha and the Party o ...
(''Partido Bandera Roja'') and Democratic Left (''Izquierda Democrática'') did, however, participate in the election, but won no seats.


Results

The CNE announced preliminary results that showed that the pro-Chávez party
Fifth Republic Movement The Fifth Republic Movement (Spanish: ''Movimiento V uintaRepública'', MVR) was a socialist political party in Venezuela. It was founded in July 1997, following a national congress of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, to support the ca ...
won 114 out of 167 seats in the National Assembly, and all other seats were won by allied parties. The Fifth Republic Movement list also received 89% of the vote for the
Latin American Parliament The Latin American Parliament (''Parlatino'') is a regional, permanent organization composed by the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a consultative assembly similar to the early European Parliament. Currently the institution ...
and the
Andean Parliament The Andean Parliament is the governing and deliberative body of the Andean Community. It was created on October 25, 1979, in La Paz (Bolivia), through the Constitutive Treaty signed by the chancellors of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Vene ...
. It is estimated that the turnout in the election was about 25% compared to 50 to 60% in previous parliamentary elections (1998 and 2000). Some suggested that these results were a very important issue in Venezuela, since a two-thirds majority in parliament is needed to change the
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...
, and these elections gave the Fifth Republic Movement a sufficient majority to change the constitution with or without the support of other political parties. The opposition and some international observers have made the claim that the abstention rate of about 75% demonstrates a deep distrust in the electoral process and the Chávez government, although in the context of the opposition withdrawal the abstention rate carries a different meaning than for a typical election, and previous poll ratings showed the opposition doing badly. After the elections, divisions emerged over the last minute withdrawal from the elections. ''Primero Justicia'' activists in particular regretted missing the opportunity to be seen as the major opposition after the withdrawal of ''Democratic Action'' and ''COPEI''.'' The Daily Journal'', 16 December 2005, "Defeat and victory sow dissent", archived a
archive.org
/ref>


References


External links

* Con cerca del 70% de abstención, Chávez obtiene la victoria en las elecciones legislativas, ''Wikinoticias'', 5 December 2005 * La oposición se retira de las elecciones legislativas en Venezuela, ''Wikinoticias'', 3 December 2005 *
Mark Weisbrot Mark Alan Weisbrot is an American economist and columnist. He is co-director with Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C. Weisbrot is President of Just Foreign Policy, a non-governmental organization ...
( Center for Economic and Policy Research), Larry Birns (
Council on Hemispheric Affairs The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1975. The organization can draw on a large number of interns of graduate and undergraduate students, who gain experience in diffe ...
)
Open Letter to the Journalists Covering the Venezuelan Elections
(1 December 2005)
OAS section on the Venezuelan parliamentary elections, 2005
{{Chávez presidency
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
Elections in Venezuela 2005 in Venezuela National Assembly (Venezuela) Bolivarian Revolution Election and referendum articles with incomplete results