While the recent Venezuela election, heavily disputed, was barely won by the country’s President, Nicolas Maduro, it seems to be far from an endorsement of his long-standing socialist government. With claims of prevailing in a fiercely disputed poll, which had been anticipated to overthrow his autocratic regime ascendant for twenty-five years, Maduro, according to the government-controlled National Electoral Council, had bagged 51.2 per cent of votes, with 80 per cent of them tallied.
His chief opponent, Edmundo González, a 74-year-old retired diplomat, could only gather 44.2 per cent votes. Contrary to the election predictions that projected González winning by 20 to 30-point margin, the actual results were a stark contrast. This election proceeded after the popular opposition leader María Corina Machado got disqualified by the courts.
Claiming numerous discrepancies in the election process and drawing attention to an “impossible” outcome, Machado, backed by diplomatic observers from the US and other neighbouring states, raised an alarm of an unfair election. The campaign was reportedly stained with mass voter threats, arrests of opposition politicians, and barring most international electoral observers. The opposition put their faith in attaining a balanced vote by insisting on access to physical printouts from the country’s 15,000 polling stations’ local voting machines to validate results collated at the national level. However, according to Machado, only 40 per cent of these printouts were made available by local polling officials.
It appears inevitable that protests will ensue, reminiscent of the 2014, 2017, and 2019 demonstrations that were brutally suppressed by security forces loyal to Maduro. The palpably dishonest election will not alleviate the country’s international isolation, particularly due to US sanctions, which has economically strangled Venezuela, leading to a quarter of its populace escaping the country in the last decade.
Despite showing recent signs of economic recovery and toning down its socialist rhetoric to appease foreign investors, Venezuela is not out of the woods yet, particularly with Maduro’s resistance to alter his governance. The nation’s afflictions look set to persist.