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LatinNews Daily - 22 February 2018

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Venezuela’s MUD announces boycott of elections

Development: On 21 February, Venezuela’s opposition coalition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) announced it was boycotting the presidential election called for 22 April.

Significance: The announcement leaves President Nicolás Maduro on track for re-election, but is likely to subject the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) government to further international criticism regarding the state of democracy in the country. The US and regional neighbours have already warned the Maduro government that if it holds elections without the opposition’s participation they will not be recognised as legitimate by the international community.

  • In a statement released yesterday, the MUD slammed the 22 April election – the date of which had been brought forward from December – as lacking proper conditions. It dubbed the election a government “show” to give an impression of legitimacy that it does not have in the midst of Venezuelans’ “agony and suffering” (a reference to the country’s ongoing economic crisis).
  • In its statement, the MUD said it would only take part if the electoral conditions agreed in a document approved during the failed national dialogue process, which recently took place in the Dominican Republic, were respected. According to the MUD, the document, which was signed by the foreign ministers of Bolivia, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Mexico, and Chile, calls for presidential elections to be held in the second half of this year, for the establishment of a “balanced” national electoral council, and the presence of an independent international observer mission, among other things.
  • The MUD is also calling for equal access to media, technical auditing which would strengthen transparency and trust in the electoral process, and the removal of current prohibitions on parties and leaders from participating. This is a reference to the fact that last month the National Electoral Council (CNE) barred the MUD (which includes the main parties Acción Democrática [AD] Primero Justicia [PJ], and Voluntad Popular [VP]) from participating after they boycotted December’s municipal elections. Similarly, the two main opposition leaders, Henrique Capriles (PJ) and Leopoldo López (VP), are barred from running – Capriles due to alleged misuse of public funds as governor of Miranda, while López (VP) was sentenced to 14 years in prison in September 2015 in relation to fatal government protests in 2014.

Looking Ahead: Likely to further increase transparency related concerns, President Maduro has announced his support for a proposal made by Diosdado Cabello, the PSUV vice president, for the government-controlled constituent assembly to approve a motion which would bring legislative elections (due in 2020) forward to 22 April, as well as calling for the regional and municipal elections to take place on that date.

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