Chavismo Wins Majority in Municipal Elections Held in Venezuela

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won the municipal elections held in the country on December 9 with an overwhelming majority of more than 90% in the initially declared lists. Sunday night, Tibisay Lucena, the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), shared the first bulletin of elections results and announced that after tallying 92.3% of the votes, PSUV won 142 of the 156 declared lists of councilors and 449 of the 467 declared lists of nominal councilors. In total, there were 335 lists of councilors and 702 lists of nominal councilors.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro congratulated the elected councilors and motivated them to serve the country. “I congratulate the elected councilors on this wonderful election day of #9Dec. I invite you all to be at the forefront of the difficulties that our people suffer, to move towards the construction of a prosperous future of the motherland. People’s Victory!”, he tweeted.

Despite the call for abstention made by the right-wing and their coalitions in the country, 27.4 % of the population turned out to exercise their right to vote. “People continue to support President Maduro and defend the legacy of comrade Chávez through the vote”, said Iris Varela, the minister of Popular Power for the Prison Service.

With this election, Venezuela celebrated its 25th successful electoral process in 20 years of revolutionary government since the arrival of comrade Hugo Chávez in power.

The representatives of the Misión de Acompañamiento Internacional Electoral [an international electoral observation organization of the Organization of American States] who participated in the elections commended the transparency in the performance of elections. “The Venezuelan electoral system can set an example in aspects such as the transmission of results, software design, etc”, said Eugenio Chicas, the former president of the Supreme Court of El Salvador and one of the representatives. Augusto Aguilar, another representative and the former president of the Supreme Court of Honduras also appreciated the Venezuelan electoral system and said that it “is the most audited [system] in Latin America”. “We observed no mishaps”, he added.

The elections were held to elect 2,459 councilors for the period of 2019-2022. Representatives of 51 political organizations participated in these elections. Out of which, 21 are from national political parties, 11 from regional political parties, 5 from national indigenous parties and 14 from regional indigenous parties.

The municipal elections are further evidence to the functioning democracy in Venezuela that the US and it’s right-wing allies in the region seek to demonize and delegitimize. In May, Nicolás Maduro was re-elected as President of Venezuela in an overwhelming victory in the face of intense international pressure and boycott campaigns from extreme right-wing sectors. The US and several allies in Latin America and in Europe declared that they do not recognize the election results and have said that as of January 10, Maduro’s swearing in for his second term, they will not recognize the government. This could mean harsher and tougher actions against the Bolivarian Republic that has already been severely weakened by the crushing economic sanctions.