Venezuela: Parliamentary Elections... in the Big Apple

Congratulations to Venezuela! I know, it's late for congratulations but I had to get my facts straight for this post. Here I go:

Even though the government tried to play subtle tricks to win most of the seats in the National Assembly (AN), the opposition still managed to win most of the votes during the parliamentary elections of 2010. But what I really wanted to talk about is my personal experience as a voter and see if anybody else, in Venezuela or overseas, had the same experience. Personally, I had a few issues.

First, I did not know until Saturday, September 18th, 2010 that Venezuelans living overseas could vote for parliamentary elections on September 26th. One of my cousins in Maryland called and explained it to me. Honestly, I have heard about it but dismissed them as rumors since I received such information from chain-emails. It turns out that now there is a Latin American Parliament and we can elect a representative to the AN to represent Venezuela in Latin America affairs. Likewise, we can also vote for a representative to the AN to address Native Indian affairs in the Latin American Parliament. Note that the AN is unicameral.

I visited the website for the National Electoral Council (CNE in Spanish) to confirm what I had heard. It was true, but I was angry. I wrongly assumed consulates would inform their constituencies ahead of time that they are able to vote in this parliamentary election, but of course they didn't - at least not the consulate in New York City. And please don't tell me that there's a way to sign up for "email updates." According to their website, email updates constitute cultural affairs and support for the Bolivarian Revolution (in Spanish). All consulates have contact information from registered voters and their duty was to inform voters, ahead of time, about the changes in the voting process. Such lack of communications only encourages citizens to rely in rumors and that, in turn, creates confusion. Exactly what an autocratic government - pretending to be a democracy - would do.

Second, when visiting the website, you will see a list of candidates and their respective parties and a PDF file containing a copy of the ballots. The ballot only shows the logo of the party but no name. I think we naively assumed that the day of the election we would be able to vote by representative, not by party. One party may have several candidates. So if we can't choose a representative but a party, we could be voting for a candidate we don't even like. Honestly, I don't know how would the CNE decide which representative is suppose to take office. Here's an example, the government's parties (PSUV, PCV, and UPV) had 22 candidates for the Latin American Parliament. Remember, we were allowed to vote only for one party, not a representative. Let's say that I wanted to vote for a candidate running with the PSUV. The PSUV had six candidates, how on earth only one person  from one party is chosen among six candidates when, again, we voted for a party, not a candidate. See my point? In other words, if somebody wanted to vote for Roy Chardenton but does not like Calixto Ortega, again how does the CNE makes a difference? Both candidates belong to the same party.

Third, none of the representatives from the Native Indian communities had a website or any information online. In all honesty, I think that only members of the Native Indian communities should vote for their representatives, not the entire nation. Yes, it is true that most of us - Venezuelans - have indigenous ancestry, but it is quite far back in time and very well mixed with African and European ancestors.  

Other than the observations above, I didn't have much trouble with the voting process. And so we went to New York City, that's where the closest consulate is for Venezuelans living in Pennsylvania.

 

Protesters chanting, "Right, left, coup-plotters go to hell!" or "Venezuela listen, we are fighting!"
 

The biggest issue right now - something I am still trying to comprehend - is that the opposition won 52% of the votes, but not the majority of the seats. According to what I understood, this is because constituencies are overrepresented, meaning that the number of representatives in rural and urban states are about the same. This system was established a while ago, but it became worst after the senate was eliminated and the AN approved a new law changing the electoral process. Coincidentally, the states were the ruling party (the PSUV) won are mostly rural states. However, I think it's better if you read what I found in El Universal, make your own conclusions, and if you understood how it works, please explain it to me. This is as confusing as the recent Prime Minister elections in the United Kingdom. On September 28th, Andreína Flores, a reporter with Radio Francia and Radio Caracol, asked the president to clarify this. This is how he answered (in Spanish): http://www.eluniversal.com/2010/09/27/v2010_ava_chavez-se-enfrasca-e_27A4529491.shtml 

Additionally, I have to mention two things that concerned me and another one that was comforting. Let's start with the good one. During the electoral process a group of alleged Chavez supporters were protesting in front of the consulate against "US intervention" and "coup-plotters" in Venezuela. It is not the first time I see protests in front of the consulate in New York. Usually, you would find both groups chavistas (Chavez supporters) and opposition supporters. But there was no opposition protest - I was puzzled by this. Though, I took it as a sign of maturity. I was even more comforted when I was quickly able to correct someone who was saying that such kind of protesting shouldn't be allowed during elections. I reminded her that we were not in Venezuela but the USA and that people had a right to protest here without the need to get a permit. I think I was happy to see the civic atmosphere that day: chavistas protesting freely, opposition supporters voting (some shouting chants at the chavistas too), the electoral process running smoothly.

The two things that concerned me are -

First of all, this is the second time I don't see the long line of voters going around the block that I used to see before (even during snow storms). We arrived there at around 10:30 a.m., I was expecting to see more people. In fact, El Universal (in Spanish) reported that an estimated 67.5% of register voters attended the polls. This is an indication that the opposition needs to renew its leadership, and work with the student movement and other smaller parties. For instance, the two most popular candidates from the opposition party were Henry Ramos Allup (in Spanish) and Hernan Escarra. An Adeco (a name referring to members of the party Accion Democratica), who represents the old political elite that paved the way for Chavez to rise to power, and a former military officer. No wonder people keep voting for Chavez, or worst yet, they don't vote. We don't have new alternatives. 

Second, my father and I are journalists and as such we couldn't avoid the temptation of taking pictures and shooting videos. While we were photographing and videotaping the pro-chavista demonstration, a photographer, who seemed to be a Chavez supporter as well, took pictures of me and my father. The way he did it was awkward. It came up right to me, quickly and softly asked for a picture and I said it was OK (even if I wasn't OK with it he has a First Amendment right to take pictures in a public area). His lens was right up my face, taking a portrait picture when he could have taken an action photo of me taking pictures of the protesters. This made me feel unconformable. I immediately felt the sense of being under scrutiny but paid no attention, as long as I'm not in Venezuela I don't worry too much about potentially being the subject of espionage. I mentioned the incident to my dad who had the same experience. Arguably, the photographer could be saying the same about us.

Later, I learned from a high school classmate that there was a fraud during elections. She posted the following on her Facebook status, "NGRESEN A LA PÁGINA OFICIAL DEL CNE Y COLOQUEN ESTAS CEDULAS: 11870910; 7217609, 24234355; 4308005, 16666860" (Translation: "Go to the CNE's website and enter the following ID number 11870910; 7217609, 24234355; 4308005, 16666860"). And I did, twice in fact. I emailed the CNE but have not received a response yet. I called them three times but nobody picked up the phone and there's only one phone number posted in the website. Although this like fraud, it could also be a hacker. Even if it was a hacker, how come it has been in the CNE website for more than three weeks? And if it was a fraud, why would they be so obvious about it? If there's anybody in Venezuela who has access to them I'd appreciate if you can find out what is wrong with the information released after entering the numbers above. 

As of October 13th, 2010, the CNE has not released the complete results of the parliamentarian elections. I am still waiting to see what the results were from the voting process in the Big Apple.



Anyway, I'm happy and optimistic because the AN has finally diversify... I am CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC.

I hope that the opposition is aware this time that the only way they can end the process of authoritarianism is by uniting and opening the doors to new leaders. I also hope that they will avoid actions such as the walk-out of parliamentary elections in 2005 which handed nearly the entire AN in a silver plate to the ruling party. Likewise, I hope the government leave the opposition govern. I hope they will not resort to dirty tricks such what they did to the Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, an opposition politician.