Venezuela elections 2021: Chavismo sweeps away and takes 20 of 23 governorships and the mayor of Caracas

The ruling Chavismo won the mayor of Caracas on Sunday and 20 of the 23 governorates in the regional elections of Venezuela, in a process in which the opposition participated again after years of boycotts and calls for abstention. The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Pedro Calzadilla, also set participation at 41.8% in the first official report, with 8.1 million voters out of 21 million who were called to go to the polls.

The Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) took the mayoralty of the capital of this country of 30 million inhabitants, Caracas, and the governorates of Amazonas, Anzoátegui, Apure, Aragua, Barinas, Bolívar, Carabobo, Delta Amacuro, Falcón, Guárico, Lara, La Guaira, Mérida, Miranda, Monagas, Portuguesa, Sucre, Táchira, Trujillo and Yaracuy.

Weakened and fragmented in the return of its main political parties to the polls, the opposition was only able to win in three states, including Zulia, the most populous in the country.

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In contrast, he suffered a severe defeat in a key region that he controlled: Táchira, on the border with Colombia.

The major opposition parties were marginalized from the 2018 presidential elections, in which the socialist ruler Nicolás Maduro was re-elected, and the 2020 legislative parties, in which the ruling party regained control of Parliament; denouncing both elections as “fraudulent”.

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“The revolutionary forces have won 21 (states), including the capital of the country (…). Good triumph, good victory, good harvest as a result of work, persevering work, ”Maduro celebrated.

The first bulletin was made public with 90.21% of the votes transmitted, Calzadilla said.

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The vote brought the return of international observers: the European Union, which had not worked in an election in Venezuela for 15 years, took part with a mission of 130 delegates and there was also the presence of experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center.

A supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro holds a portrait of him during a march to commemorate Indigenous Resistance Day, in Caracas on October 12, 2021. (Federico PARRA / AFP).

The Venezuelan authorities, in previous electoral events, opted for “accompaniment missions” of countries and organizations close to Chavismo.

“Abstention and division”

“The results of the CNE bring few surprises (…). The map is fundamentally red (the color of the PSUV ruler), as expected, ”wrote analyst Luis Vicente León, director of the Datanálisis polling company, on Twitter.

“This result is regrettable for the opposition, since it was defined fundamentally due to abstention and division,” said León, referring to the difficulties of Maduro’s rivals to agree on unified candidacies.

That fragmentation made things easier for Chavismo in traditionally oppositional areas like Táchira.

A woman walks in front of the propaganda of a Chavista candidate for the local elections. (EFE / RAYNER PEÑA R.).

“Today democracy won and the compromise triumphed,” tweeted former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, winner in Zulia, a state that already ruled between 2000 and 2008.

One death was reported in Zulia due to a shooting “in the vicinity” of a voting center, according to a police report, although the Minister of the Interior, Remigio Ceballos, classified it as a “criminal act isolated to the electoral process.”

Late closing

Voting centers opened at 06:00 (10:00 GMT) throughout Venezuela.

Its closure was scheduled for 6:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. GMT), but there was criticism from opposition sectors for the extension of the process, something common in the country. Venezuelan law indicates that, as long as there are voters in line, the months must remain open.

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski speaks during a press conference in Caracas, on November 19, 2021. (Federico PARRA / AFP).

The European Union will present a preliminary report of its observation next Tuesday.

The return of the EU is, according to analysts, one of the president’s concessions in his crusade for the lifting of sanctions, which include a US oil embargo.

The opposition leader Juan Guaidó, recognized as interim president of Venezuela by dozens of countries, did not vote and has kept silence.

Guaidó advocated this week to resume negotiations between the government and the opposition in Mexico, paralyzed since the extradition to the United States of Colombian businessman Alex Saab, close to Maduro. The Chavista president, however, said this Sunday that “there are no conditions” to resume the talks.

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