Venezuelans head to polls as oppn calls for boycotts
Caracas: As Venezuelans head to a Sunday election, they are again being used as political pawns. Opposition factions are urging abstention while the ruling party aims to tighten its grip on power — all while both sides appeal to the
US government for decisions that would have a greater impact on people’s lives than the vote’s results.
The election for members of the National Assembly, governors and other regional offices will be the first to allow broad voter
participation since last year’s presidential contest, which President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won despite credible evidence to the contrary.
The contest comes as the opposition’s most recognizable figure, María Corina Machado, remains in hiding to avoid arrest and most other leaders are in exile or prison due to the government’s repressive measures unleashed after the July election.
“We lost confidence in voting. On July 28, they made fun of us,” said Carmen Medina, who sells plastic jewellery in the capital, Caracas. “I’m not planning to vote.”
A nationwide poll conducted between April 29 and May 4 by the Venezuela-based research firm Delphos showed that only 15.9% of voters expressed a high probability of voting Sunday.
Of those, 74.2% said they would vote for the candidates of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela and its allies, while 13.8% said they would vote for contenders associated with two opposition leaders who ignored Machado’s call to boycott the elections.
Sociologist Roberto Briceño, director of the independent Laboratory of Social Sciences research group, said many Venezuelans no longer see their vote as a tool to “generate change or improve the country’s dire situation.”
After July’s election, he said, people are living with a “persistent sadness about the future” as “they feel they did their part” to get someone other than Maduro elected.
Venezuela’s most recent economic troubles pushed year-over-year inflation in April to 172%, bringing the price of food and other basic goods for a family to $409 a month, according to a group of economists.
