Venezuela’s Elections: Free and Fair?

When Mr. Capriles decided to run for president yet again, the natural response was to think “he won’t make it”. Three weeks ago we could only dream of winning these elections. Today, reflecting on what last Sunday meant for this country leaves us with a bittersweet sensation.

Among the most basic features of a democracy are free and fair elections, which periodically offer the people a chance to elect a new government. In Venezuela, the stipulation of “free and fair” has always been tenuous when it comes to exercising the right to vote. Yet never has the unfair competition or lack of freedom been more obvious than it is today, because even when previous results have been in doubt, the opposition never consolidated its power. This was as clear as ever on Sunday.

Perhaps it is hard to imagine how a disadvantaged competition like this could occur. I can cite personal experience to illustrate what Venezuela went through on April 14^th.

During Election Day, I worked as a witness for the opposition party in “El Rodeo”, a jail an hour and a half’s distance from Caracas City, and though I was not required to make any kind of report, I think it’s important to share several disturbing incidents that caught my attention.

All around, you could hear songs supporting the official candidate. People wore red T-shirts and hats containing Chavista propaganda, which clearly violated the electoral law (though they removed such propaganda when asked). Polls were meant to close at 6pm, yet witnesses from the official party were still pressuring the electoral center to stay open at 6:10, as they knew many people who had not voted yet. Eventually, after some tense negotiation of new rules, the center closed at 6:30pm, with no extra voters. Moreover, at noon I personally heard the first secretary of the center tell someone over the phone that she had a list with the ID numbers of people who had not voted yet, and she begged this person to get them all from their homes and bring them to the center.

For those of us who were opposition witnesses it was a hard day, mostly because the place was completely in favor of the chavismo. When we arrived, we were asked which party we were representing, and before I could answer one officer said “of course she is for the opposition, you can see it in her face”. As we left we found armed groups had taken the streets, and the few opposition members that were there recommended that we go home as soon as possible.

But all of these were minor incidents compared to the final result that would be announced. On our way home we listened to both opposition campaign officials on the radio, and confirmed what we already knew; as witnesses, we are responsible for a little paper that the machine prints, called a tally sheet, which states the whole balance of the electoral process. It is our responsibility to send those balances to the campaign center, where they track the results, and later verify them by what is announced by the National Electoral Council (NEC). Hence, we knew with quality data that the result had been, for the first time, in our favor, and our officials confirmed this. But when the moment came, Mrs Tibisay Lucena, president of the NEC, did not announce the number that we all knew.

This past week has probably been the most bizarre in a very long time. On Monday, we had no class, or work, or anything, and instead we took to the streets at night, clanging our pots and pans in protest. Tuesday went similarly, until we resumed our activities while waiting for further announcements. Tension diminishes as time goes by, and everything is starting to cool down, little by little. But even though we have temporarily not achieved the goal, the feeling of what happened last Sunday is completely different from that of October 7^th, 2012. This time, we know we made it, and the people finally have not only a strong leader, but the idea that it is possible to fight this regime, which in this past week has only proven its absolutely totalitarian nature.