Venezuela
Elections for National Assembly Underway
President
Nicolás Maduro on September 8, 2020, speaks about
the Great
Patriotic Pole's participation in the December
2020 elections.
Parliamentary elections in Venezuela for a new
National
Assembly are to be held on December 6. Voters will
elect 277 deputies
for the 2021-2026 period -- 110 more members than
the National Assembly
currently has. Registration of parties and
candidates that will contest
the election concluded on September 4, with 107
political organizations
participating, some as part of alliances. Just
over half the seats will
be filled by proportional representation and the
remainder by
first-past-the-post. A total of 14,400 candidate
nominations were
received.
 The governing
United Socialist Party of Venezuela will be joined
by a number of
smaller parties in the Great Patriotic Pole. Five
opposition parties
will put forward their candidates as part of the
Democratic Alliance,
rejecting the call of the U.S.-financed fake
"president" Juan
Guaidó and a number of other opposition factions
to boycott
yet another election in favour of holding out for
"a violent shortcut"
to power, as a rival opposition leader put it.
This reveals an
opposition in disarray.
Another point of contention
dividing the U.S.-financed opposition can be seen
in the sharp
differences in their reactions and mutual
accusations in response to
President Nicolás Maduro's decision to grant a
pardon to 110
opposition politicians and other individuals
facing criminal charges,
to foster dialogue and reconciliation in the
country. Twenty of those
pardoned were members of the National Assembly
which since 2016 has
been in contempt of laws it is duty-bound to
uphold. Those individuals
are now free to stand for re-election.
Along with
releasing the results of the automated candidate
registration process,
the National Electoral Council issued a statement
rejecting the
interference of the United States government which
has imposed illegal
sanctions against its president, Indira Maira
Alfonzo, and one of its
directors. The statement made clear that the
electoral body rejected
any attempt of any foreign government to issue
orders to, impose
conditions on, or coerce its senior officials in
the performance of
their duties.
Advances towards holding successful
parliamentary elections are taking place at a time
there is heightened
concern over the possibility of a direct U.S.
military intervention, or
one launched by proxy forces, with those from
Colombia and Brazil most
often mentioned. Indications of this include the
constant
sabre-rattling towards Venezuela by Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo and
assorted U.S. Southcom generals and the
increasingly brutal U.S.
blockade aimed at completely suffocating Venezuela
economically.
Concern is also heightened by the state of
disarray in which the
opposition finds itself, the continuing presence
of the U.S. Navy near
the Venezuelan coast supposedly engaging in
routine "anti-narcotics"
patrols and exercises, and the illegal presence of
U.S. troops inside
Colombia, in open violation of the country's
constitution, allegedly to
advise and train Colombia's military in
counter-narcotics operations.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 34 - September 12, 2020
Article Link:
Venezuela: Elections for National Assembly Underway
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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