Venezuela faces a new political landscape after a landslide opposition victory in parliamentary elections, but it remained unclear whether the result was enough to start steering the country away from its path of “21st century socialism”.
“Venezuela wanted a change and today that change has begun,” said Jesús Torrealba, leader of the opposition coalition, known as the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), after the first results of the vote were announced early on Monday.
The result marked the first time in 16 years that supporters of the late president Hugo Chávez had lost its majority in the 167-seat unicameral national assembly.
President Nicolás Maduro recognized the “adverse results” but said the outcome of the election was not the end to the “Bolivarian revolution” he inherited from Chávez, who died in 2013 from cancer.
“We have lost a battle today but now is when the fight for socialism begins,” he said in a late-night address.
Official results show the opposition will have at least 99 seats in the assembly, more than doubling the ruling socialist party’s 46 seats.
Although the results in 22 seats remain uncounted, opposition leader and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said the MUD had won the 113 seats it needed for a supermajority, which would give it the muscle to make significant changes in the way the country is run.
A supermajority in the assembly would enable the opposition to shake up the power structure of the Venezuelan state, which has been firmly under ruling party control for 16 years.
Maduro will still maintain control of the executive and judicial branches of government, including the supreme court.
But a simple majority in the assembly will be enough for the opposition to influence government spending and censure cabinet ministers.
It will also allow them to pass an amnesty law to free political prisoners jailed for their dissent of Maduro’s government – which opposition leaders have said will be their first move once they are sworn in.
Torrealba said the opposition would use its new strength to return the rights of “those who have been unjustly persecuted, jailed, blocked from politics or exiled”.
Venezuela’s best-known jailed politician is Leopoldo López, who in 2014 was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison on charges of promoting political violence that killed 43 people. The opposition has a list of what it says are more than 70 other political prisoners.
Orlando Regalado, a former teacher and MUD supporter said the issue of detained activists was an urgent priority for the opposition. “First we have to end the injustices that we have had to live with, then they can start trying to fix all the other problems we face,” he says.
The vote was seen as a referendum on Maduro’s handling of the country, which despite having the world’s largest oil reserves, faces chronic shortages of basic foods, inflation in the triple digits and a wave of violent crime.
The government says much of the country’s woes are the result of an “economic war” being waged against the government by the opposition and the United States, exacerbated by the shrinking price of oil, Venezuela’s lifeblood.
“The economic war has won, for now, circumstantially,” Maduro said, predicting that the opposition would try to dismantle the gains of the “Bolivarian revolution”, which while oil prices were high established a broad social welfare system that won Chávez a fervent following.
Maduro’s term ends in 2019, but hardliners among the opposition want to force him out next year through a recall referendum.
“I can’t see this government finishing its term because it is too weak,” said opposition leader Henry Ramos. “Internal frictions are beginning. They’re blaming each other for this huge defeat.”
Nicmer Evans, a political analyst who considers himself Chavista but who has been sharply critical of Maduro’s government, said that the opposition should focus first on acting as a check to the government and trying to address voters’ most pressing concerns.
“These are the issues that should take precedence,” Evans said, adding that “It would be a huge mistake by the opposition to believe that they have been given a blank cheque.”
And Evans warned that while the elections polarised the country into two opposing camps, cracks on both sides will begin to show now that the result is in.
“Maduro is weakened within the government where everyone is blaming each other for the loss,” he says.
Meanwhile, MUD leaders admitted that the 27 parties in the coalition were united only in their opposition to Maduro – and may not see eye to eye over policies. “We have different visions,” Capriles told reporters at a press conference. “But we have to try to maintain some unity.”
Pedro Mavez, a retired engineer with the oil industry said he was overjoyed by the opposition win – but added that he hoped its leaders would tone down their rhetoric and get to work: “They need to be less confrontational and more constructive,” he said.
The opposition victory was the latest in a string of setbacks for incumbent populist leaders in the region, including Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, whose hand-picked candidate Daniel Scioli
was defeated last month by the centre-right Mauricio Macri.
Latin America’s left gained power in the wake of Chávez’s ascent but more recently has been struggling in the face of a region-wide economic slowdown and voter fatigue in some countries with rampant corruption.
One poll ahead of Sunday’s vote in Venezuela showed that fewer than 30% of voters had a favourable view of Maduro, and majorities disapprove of his handling of every national issue tested, including crime, corruption and relations with the United States.
“What had to happen, happened,” said Rosa Gutiérrez, a housekeeper, of the opposition victory. “The road ahead won’t be easier but we have to start somewhere,” she said.
by Kumar David-December 5, 2015,
