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The Democratic Unity Roundtable (, MUD) was a catch-all
electoral coalition An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political party, political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand ...
of
Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
n political parties formed in January 2008 to unify the opposition to President
Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...
's
United Socialist Party of Venezuela The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (, PSUV, ) is a Socialism, socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2007. It was formed from a merger of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivar ...
in the
2010 Venezuelan parliamentary election The 2010 parliamentary election in Venezuela took place on 26 September 2010 to elect the 165 deputies to the National Assembly of Venezuela, National Assembly. Venezuelan opposition parties, which had boycotted the 2005 Venezuelan parliamentary ...
. A previous opposition umbrella group, the '' Coordinadora Democrática'', had collapsed after the failure of the 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum. The coalition was made of primarily
centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...
and
centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...
parties. The main components were Democratic Action and Copei, the two parties who dominated Venezuelan politics from 1959 to 1999. Since the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election, Justice First became the largest opposition party, and Henrique Capriles Radonski became the leader of the opposition. In the 2015 parliamentary election, the coalition became the largest group in the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
with 112 out of 167 (a
supermajority A supermajority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority rules in a democracy can help to prevent a majority from eroding fun ...
), ending sixteen years of PSUV rule of the country's unicameral parliament. In the 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, the MUD boycotted the election, and as the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
itself lost most of its power, PSUV retook its parliamentary majority. In July 2018, Democratic Action, one of the largest and most distinguished parties of the MUD, said they will leave the coalition.


Overview

The MUD was formally launched on 23 January 2008 and restructured on 8 June 2009. In June 2009 MUD included 11 political parties, and was led by Luis Ignacio Planas, President of Copei. By April 2010 the MUD included around 50 political parties, of which 16 were national in scope (the rest regional), and had support from some other social organisations and opinion groups. The main parties included in MUD are Democratic Action and Copei, the two parties who dominated Venezuelan politics from 1959 to 1999; the dissenting left-wing parties Movement for Socialism, Radical Cause and Red Flag Party; and more recently established parties Project Venezuela,
A New Era Un Nuevo Tiempo (Spanish for 'A New Era', UNT) is a centre-left politics, centre-left political party in Venezuela. It received 11% of the vote in the 2008 Venezuelan regional elections, 2008 regional elections. The party arose in Zulia State, ...
, Justice First and For Social Democracy ("PODEMOS"). The MUD was supported by the Movimiento 2D opposition movement led by '' El Nacional'' editor and proprietor Miguel Henrique Otero. Ramón Guillermo Aveledo served as the MUD's Executive Secretary from March 2009 to July 2014. The journalist Jesús "Chúo" Torrealba became the coalition's current Executive Secretary in September 2014. The MUD declared common ideological points between its members in its National Unity Agreement. They support autonomy of State institutions. Furthermore, its members represent and foster ideological pluralism within the democratic Left. MUD supports freedom of work, property, press, and free education. It advocates decentralize power and federalization. It also promotes public security, defense of private property and economic freedoms, quality education, job creation, and job creation and fair distribution of income from national oil reserves. The MUD wants a foreign policy based on solidarity, especially Venezuela's neighbors. It also wants various policies to make Venezuela more democratic, especially in regards to reducing the institutional influence of the military and reforming electoral laws. In early September 2012, David De Lima, a former governor of Anzoategui, published a document he said showed secret MUD plans to implement much more
neoliberal Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pej ...
policy, if elected, than their public statements showed. De Lima said the document was a form of policy pact between some of the candidates in the MUD primary, including Capriles. On 6 September 2012, opposition legislator William Ojeda denounced these plans and the "neoliberal obsessions" of his colleagues in the MUD; he was suspended by his
A New Era Un Nuevo Tiempo (Spanish for 'A New Era', UNT) is a centre-left politics, centre-left political party in Venezuela. It received 11% of the vote in the 2008 Venezuelan regional elections, 2008 regional elections. The party arose in Zulia State, ...
party the following day. One small coalition party claimed De Lima had offered them money to withdraw from the MUD; De Lima denied the claim.


2010 legislative elections

In April 2010 the MUD held primaries in 15 electoral districts, with 361,000 voters participating, and selecting 22 candidates (the remaining 143 candidates were chosen "by consensus"). The candidates chosen included María Corina Machado (of Súmate) and Iván Simonovis, one of nine police officials allegedly serving time for participating in the alleged 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt. Several others of the nine, regarded by the MUD as political prisoners, were also nominated, in districts with a real chance of opposition success; winning would require their release because of
parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians or other political leaders are granted full immunity from legal prosecution, both civil prosecution and criminal prosecution, in the course of the exe ...
.
Manuel Rosales Manuel Antonio Rosales Guerrero (born 12 December 1952, in Santa Bárbara del Zulia) is a Venezuelan educator and politician, current governor of Zulia. He was the most prominent Venezuelan opposition candidate in the 2006 Venezuelan presiden ...
, the opposition's candidate in the 2006 Venezuelan presidential election and now in exile in Peru due to corruption charges (which Rosales denies), was also nominated.IPS News, 27 April 2010
Opposition Plans Return to Venezuelan Congress
In the September 2010 election for the
National Assembly of Venezuela The National Assembly () is the federal legislature of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which was first elected in 2000 under the 1999 constitution. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by a ...
the MUD won around 47% of the vote nationally; however, it only gained 64 seats (out of 165) due to changes in population-vote distribution introduced by the incumbent national assembly that had a government party supermajority. In the same elections, the
United Socialist Party of Venezuela The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (, PSUV, ) is a Socialism, socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2007. It was formed from a merger of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivar ...
won 48% of the vote and 98 seats, while the ''Patria Para Todos'' (PPT) party got only 2 seats.
In Venezuela, the electoral system is set up in a way that favors the majority party as well as rural votes more than urban votes. Chavez counts on support from the over-represented rural areas. The system means that even if the opposition won at least half of the votes, it would actually seat considerably fewer than half of the parliament.".
Notable new deputies included María Corina Machado and Enrique Mendoza.


2012 presidential election

The MUD held an open primary election on 12 February 2012. Henrique Capriles Radonski won the opposition primaries with 1,900,528 (64.2%) votes of the 3,059,024 votes cast (votes abroad not included). The other candidates on the 12 February 2012 primary ballot were: * Pablo Pérez Álvarez: governor of
Zulia state Zulia State (, ; Wayuu language, Wayuu: ''Mma’ipakat Suuria'') is one of the States of Venezuela, 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Vene ...
, representing the
A New Era Un Nuevo Tiempo (Spanish for 'A New Era', UNT) is a centre-left politics, centre-left political party in Venezuela. It received 11% of the vote in the 2008 Venezuelan regional elections, 2008 regional elections. The party arose in Zulia State, ...
party; received 30.3% of the vote. * María Corina Machado: former Súmate president and member of the
National Assembly of Venezuela The National Assembly () is the federal legislature of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which was first elected in 2000 under the 1999 constitution. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by a ...
representing the Miranda state since 2011; received 3.7% of the vote. * Diego Arria: former Venezuelan representative to the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
(1990–91) and former governor of the defunct
Federal District A federal district is a specific administrative division in one of various federations. These districts may be under the direct jurisdiction of a federation's national government, as in the case of federal territory (e.g., India, Malaysia), or the ...
(1974–78); received 1.3% of the vote. * Pablo Medina: politician and former trade union leader, supported by the trade unions; received 0.5% of the vote.


2015 legislative elections

In December 2015, MUD won 112 of the 167 seats in the National Assembly, a two-thirds supermajority.


Member parties


Former member parties

The
Christian democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...
Copei party was not a member of the coalition in the 2015 parliamentary election, despite having been a founding member of the MUD. The
Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
Red Flag Party was a member of the coalition and supported the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski in the 2012 presidential election, but due to different objectives, the Red Flag Party stepped out of the MUD. In August 2017, Come Venezuela left the Democratic Unity Roundtable over a disagreement regarding electoral participation. In July 2018, the
social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
Democratic Action left the Democratic Unity Roundtable.


Electoral results


Presidential elections


Parliamentary elections


See also

* Coordinadora Democrática * Great Patriotic Pole — political coalition led by President Nicolas Maduro


References


External links


Unidad Venezuela
{{Authority control 2008 establishments in Venezuela 2021 disestablishments in Venezuela Crisis in Venezuela Defunct political party alliances in Venezuela Organizations disestablished in 2021 Organizations established in 2008 Political opposition alliances Politics of Venezuela Opposition to Hugo Chávez Opposition to Nicolás Maduro