CARACAS, Dec 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuelans vote Sunday in legislative
elections set to tighten President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power and further weaken his US-backed opposition rival Juan Guaido, who is leading a boycott of the polls he calls a fraud.
Victory will give Maduro’s ruling Socialist Party control of an expanded
227-seat National Assembly, the only institution not yet in its hands.
Sunday’s vote comes five years after the opposition won control of the National Assembly by a landslide.
Guaido, 37, called for a boycott on grounds that “free and fair”
conditions for holding elections do not exist. He labeled Sunday’s poll “a
fraud”.
Guaido and his allies plan a week-long plebiscite from Monday seeking
public support to prolong the mandate of the current National Assembly until “free, verifiable and transparent” elections can be held.
However, the results will not be binding, as Maduro exercises control of
the country’s institutions, including the Supreme Court and the powerful
military.
The vote takes place against a backdrop of deep political and economic
crisis, with a weary population facing endless queues for gas, and chronic
shortages of basic food and medical supplies.
Maduro, a former bus driver who became president on the death of his
mentor Hugo Chavez in 2013, was re-elected in 2018 in fraud-tainted polls, a
victory which much of the international community branded illegitimate.
The United States, the European Union and many Latin American countries
have long blamed Venezuela’s crippling economic crisis on Maduro’s repression and mis-rule.
Instead, they backed Guaido when the National Assembly speaker proclaimed himself interim president in January of last year.
Initial enthusiasm has waned, however, with critics seeing Guaido’s
plebiscite ploy as a desperate gamble.
Maduro’s expected victory on Sunday will be greeted by his foreign allies
Russia and China as lending his regime legitimacy as well as a legal
framework to their agreements which help circumvent US and EU sanctions.
The electoral authority, appointed by the Maduro-friendly Supreme Court,
said more than 20 million people are eligible to vote in the polls.
Guaido, who boldly declared himself president last year, winning the
backing of 50 countries, is set to lose the leadership of the National
Assembly, on which he based his legitimacy.
That will likely force his international backers to reassess their
position.
Guaido is meanwhile calling for increased sanctions from the US and EU,
even though a Datanalisis poll showed 71 percent of Venezuelans oppose more crippling sanctions. — NNN-AGENCIES
