Sumate presents report on impact of illegalities on Venezuelan regional elections

Originally published here

Sumate presented today its analysis of the impact of the CNE illegally allowing Chavez' MVR to field "unrelated" parties for the slate and nominal candidates in August's regional elections, the so called "morochas" or twins The full report can be found here.
As a remainder, Venezuelan legislation allows parties to field both nominal and slate candidates, but in order to preserve the rights of minority representation, guaranteed by the Constitution; the number of candidates elected under their own name is subtracted from the number of candidates elected under the slate. In the last election, Chavez' MVR registered an unknown new political party (UVE) to field nominal candidates, using MVR to field the slate, this was used to bypass the law, under the consenting approval of the Electoral Board. Opposition Governor Manuel Rosales of Zulia state did the same sneaky trick. This only works if you have a majority, as it allows you to grab more positions than the law would assign you.


What Sumate did was to assume that MVR and UVE were the same party and recalculate the number of candidates elected. The results are astonishing, not only did Chavez' party rip off the opposition, but it also fraudulently took a large number of positions from the minority parties that support Chavez himself!

Basically, Chavez' party MVR obtained 35.1% of the total vote, which according to the rules would have given them 42.8% of the seats up for grabs. However, the illegal use of the "morochas" or twins allowed Chavez' party to grab a total of 58% of all positions!

According to Sumate's analysis, minority parties that support Chavez obtained 19.4% of the votes, which entitled them to 14.4% of the seats, but because of the illegal and unfair advantage of Chavez' party they only got 9.3% of the total number of seats. The opposition on the other hand got 18.8% of the vote, which should have given them 21.6% of the seats, but because of the "morochas" was reduced to only 14.9%. Finally, local regional parties received 22.2% of the vote, which should have given them 18.6% of the positions, but only gave them 15.2% of the seats.

What is most remarkable about this analysis is that it was actually those that backed Chavez that were affected the most by the treachery. Minority parties that support Chavez saw their votes (19.4%) reduced to half the positions, despite the Constitutional guarantee for proportional representation. Some loyalty, no? In contrast opposition parties had their representation reduced by roughly 30% close to that of small local parties.

The details are remarkable. Basically, the Chavista trick gained them 363 additional positions, out of 584 total positions obtained by this unholy alliance called the "morochas" or twins. The same was true in Zulia state where Governor Rosales' "morochas" gave him 27 additional seats out of only 56 obtained. Shame on him too!

Some parties were absolutely ripped off by the trick. The infamous "Tupamaros" that have supported Chavez unequivocally during the last seven years, lost nine of the twelve seats they should have received, a staggering 75% of the total they would have obtained. With friends like Chavez, who needs enemies?

The analysis goes on in detail to show the level of abuse and illegalities committed by Chavez' majority with the unconditional and biased backing and help of the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE), which should not have only stopped the "morochas", but even allowed UVE to register past the deadline for registration of new parties and certified the signatures backing that party only six days before the regional elections took place. These guys are professional crooks!

These are the type of abuses that Chavez and his cronies are committing under the eyes of the world, that later allows them to claim this is a democracy. By eliminating the necessary checks and balances of any functional democracy, Chavez can not only use all of the resources of the State for the benefit of his own party, but can turn the rules and the law to his advantage without anyone saying or being capable of doing anything about it or even defending the rights of the "people" that are being violated by his actions as well as those of his party.