On Sunday, Venezuela holds presidential elections. Despite expected manipulation and fraud by the regime of Nicolas Maduro, polls indicate a good chance of victory for the opposition led by Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
On Friday the government Nicolas Maduro he declared that he would not let anyone in Venezuela a group of leading Latin American politicians who wanted to observe the voting process – former president ArgentinaPeronist Alberto Fernandez and leftist president Brazil Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.
As all the above indicate pollsthis time it is not possible to rule out the electoral defeat of President Maduro, despite all the “traps” set by the dictatorship and making it possible to manipulate the voting results – especially in rural electoral commissions, where the authorities “for greater transparency of the vote” placed only one table on which to fill out the ballot. .
The government camp, as all independent commentators – including the Spanish news agency EFE and the opinion-forming Spanish daily “El Pais” – point out in their comments and predictions on the eve of the vote, “did everything it could” to increase President Maduro's chances of electoral victory by eliminating the most dangerous competition before the elections and creating conditions for “miracles at the ballot box”.
The regime will want to influence voters
Venezuelan opposition websites warned on the eve of the vote that “the regime has not yet revealed all its cards and possibilities of manipulating the election results”. One of the methods of influencing the election results is supposed to be “operation towing”, where local pro-government electoral committees transport slow citizens to the polling stations, a practice already practiced in the 2018 elections.
During these activities, special shopping vouchers financed by the government will be distributed to citizens who “mobilize themselves to participate in the vote,” according to Venezuelan opposition media, citing the organization “Transparency Electoral.” Nicolas Maduro's government is using other methods of influence against a group of voters, including employees of public enterprises and beneficiaries of aid programs for the poorest.
Venezuelan opposition websites also devote considerable space to so-called “assisted voting”, a practice used by the government for undecided or less politically savvy and older voters, who are helped by “assistant” officials appointed by the authorities to decide who to vote for so as not to make a mistake.
Venezuela in Crisis Under Maduro's Rule
Maduro took over the presidency from Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013. He was sworn in for a second term in early 2019 after elections that were widely seen around the world as fraudulent. Western countries have not recognized him as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
Under Maduro's rule, the oil-rich country is in deep economic and humanitarian crisis, with more than seven million people, or about 20 percent of its population, having fled since 2014.
Venezuela is isolated internationally, and Maduro has declared his support for Russiawho attacked Ukraine.
Main image source: PAP/EPA/MIGUEL GUTIERREZ