Andean Group - November 2012 (ISSN 1741-4466)

The campaign for the 16 December regional elections got underway on 1 November and will run to 13 December. In total, 135 candidates are contesting gubernatorial seats in 23 states. Though he coasted to re-election for a fourth consecutive term in October,  President Hugo Chávez is determined to reverse a trend of falling support for the ruling ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) in several states before his next  six-year term begins in January - and also ahead of important municipal elections in April 2013. With that in mind, he parachuted in several handpicked candidates at the last minute over and above local representatives. The president’s objective is to consolidate his tightly centralised command ahead of the next, more radical, phase of the transition towards socialism, which will focus on expanding the role of carefully selected communal councils and proposed new regional authorities, most probably at the expense of the existing (elected) state and municipal powers.

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