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VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION CRIES FRAUD; PEOPLE REELECT PRESIDENT MADURO  
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Roger Harris
July 30, 2024
Counterpunch
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_ In the quarter century since Hugo Chavez initiated the Bolivarian
Revolution when he was elected president in 1998, the Chavistas have
won all but two of over thirty national contests. _

, Roger Harris

 

_July 29, 2024, Caracas, Venezuela._

Shortly before midnight, the president of the National Electoral
Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, announced the re-election of
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Like the proverbial boy who
cried wolf, the US-backed and funded far-right opposition cried fraud.

Maduro won with 51.2% of the vote. His nearest rival, the far-right
US-backed candidate Edmundo Gonzalez trailed by 7 percentage points.

While the US corporate press refers to the “opposition” as if it
were a unified bloc, eight other names appeared on the ballot. Unlike
the US, where most of the electorate is polarized around two major
parties, the fractious opposition in Venezuela is split into many
mutually hostile camps whose dislike of the ruling Socialist Party is
matched by their loathing for each other. And this is despite millions
of US tax-payer dollars used to try to unify a cabal that would carry
Washington’s water.

SORE LOSERS

In the quarter century since Hugo Chavez initiated the Bolivarian
Revolution when he was elected president in 1998, the Chavistas have
won all but two of over thirty national contests. The far-right
opposition celebrated when they won a national referendum along with
the 2015 National Assembly contest. But every other time, the sore
losers cried fraud.

Yet every one of these contests employed the same electoral system of
multiple public audits, transparent counting, and an electronic vote
backed with paper ballots. The system is incontrovertibly fraud-proof.
Former US President Jimmy Carter, whose electoral monitoring
organization had observed over ninety elections – including
Venezuela’s – had declared the South American country’s system
the best in the world.

Beyond the accusations, concrete proof of fraud had not been
forthcoming in the past even though the data were publicly available.

I was one of 910 internationals representing over one hundred
countries who had been invited to Venezuela to accompany this
election. Yesterday, I visited polling stations in the state of
Miranda.

I observed long but orderly lines of people going to the polls. At
each one of the individual _mesas _(rooms at a polling station),
representatives of political parties sat to monitor the process. I
spoke to representatives of Maduro’s Socialist Party (PSUV) as well
as other parties. All expressed confidence in the fraud-proof nature
of their electoral system. In fact, they are very proud of their
system regardless of political affiliation.

According to news reports, there were cyberattacks on the electoral
system. At some polling stations, far-right opposition elements
reportedly attacked electoral workers in attempts to disrupt the
process.

But my experience visiting the polls could only be described as
festive. Seeing our international invitee credentials, which we wore
on lanyards around our necks, we were universally greeted with shouts
of _bienvenida _(welcome), V-signs, and applause. These were clearly a
people with great civic pride.

This reception was the same in “popular” Chavista neighborhoods as
well as wealthier ones. Some hoped for “change” and others for
continuing the Bolivarian Revolution. But all freely and
enthusiastically participated in the electoral process.

The perennial accusations of fraud, trotted out every time the
far-right gets rebuked by the voting public, were not reflected by the
actions of the people on the ground as evidenced by their wholehearted
participation.

July 25, the last day of official campaigning, was marked by the final
political rallies. The far-right drew an estimated 100,000. I attended
the Maduro rally of some one million. As far as I could see, people
had jammed the main boulevards of Caracas. Clearly the Chavistas have
a vast and dedicated base.

And they are wildly supportive of their current president Nicolas
Maduro, who is seen as carrying on the legacy of the deceased founder
of the Bolivarian project, Hugo Chavez, whose birthday is the same as
this election day.

But it goes deeper than that. As the slogan _yo soy Chavez_ (I am
Chavez) indicates, the base sees the Bolivarian project not simply as
one of their political leadership but more so as a collective
endeavor.

THE REAL ELECTORAL INTERFERENCE

Far greater than any accusation of fraud manufactured by the far-right
opposition is the much more significant interference in the electoral
process by Washington.

The vote for continuing the Bolivarian Revolution represents a mandate
for national sovereignty. Venezuelans went to the polls knowing that a
vote for the incumbent meant no relief from US unilateral coercive
measures. These so-called “sanctions” have been part of
Washington’s failed regime-change campaign explicitly designed to
asphyxiate the Venezuelan economy and turn the people against their
government.

This shout-out of, in Maduro’s words, “we are not anyone’s
colony” was indeed heard around the world.

_ROGER D. HARRIS __is with the US Peace Council and the 39-year-old
human rights organization Task Force on the Americas._

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* Venezuelan Elections 2024; Election of Maduro 2024; Bolivarian
Revolution;
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