The re-run of state elections in the Venezuelan state of Barinas is looking increasingly chaotic. After a narrow opposition victory in the 21 November elections the result in Barinas was disallowed by the government-controlled supreme Court (TSJ). Preparations are continuing for the re-run, scheduled for 9 January.
The ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) has submitted a new candidate, Jorge Arreaza, who has stepped down from the foreign ministry to run for the governorship. Barinas was the birthplace of the Bolivarian revolutionary hero, former president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), and the government wants to maintain that symbolic Chávez family link: Arreaza is a former son-in-law of the late president, and a close ally of incumbent president Nicolás Maduro.
After the late disqualification of opposition candidate Freddy Superlano in November for unspecified violations, the opposition first sought to register his wife, but she too was rejected by the electoral authorities. It has eventually been settled for Sergio Garrido, who will represent the Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD).
Allegations of dirty tricks are rampant. Arreaza has been quickly registered as a candidate despite never living in Barinas, a registration requirement. ‘Spoiler’ candidates have emerged to split the opposition vote (there are now seven candidates in total). They include Adolfo Superlano for a government linked pseudo-opposition party calling itself MIN-Unidad.
Although not related to Freddy Superlano, who can be described as the genuine opposition candidate in the first poll, Adolfo’s surname and electoral symbols appear designed to confuse voters in the re-run elections. It was Adolfo’s complaint that led to the suspension of the 21 November polls. In the words of the Caracas Chronicles website, “the parallel government-leaning opposition appointed a parallel Superlano to run for the Barinas governorship”.
Venezuela Súmate, an NGO, has accused Maduro of using official state media to campaign in favour of Arreaza, in violation of both the constitution and the electoral law. PSUV leader Diosdado Cabello has stepped up pressure on the national electoral council (CNE), one of the few official bodies on which the opposition has some representation, threatening to sue its leader, Roberto Picón, and claiming that he was “in the pay” of opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski.