September 24, 2012 4:18 pm
Chávez
accused of election dirty tricks
By Benedict Mander in Caracas
Opponents of President
Hugo Chávez see this election as their best chance yet of ousting him
Shortly after
Venezuelan television stations began a live broadcast of a major opposition
rally this month, coverage was cut and replaced with images of President Hugo
Chávez looking jovial and fatherly as he visited young children at school.
It was one of the
populist leader’s infamous “chain broadcasts”, in which all regular programming
on public access television and radio is suspended so that he can trumpet the
achievements of his “Bolivarian revolution”, often for hours on end.
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Mr Chávez’s opponents cite this as just another example of how the socialist leader, who has said in the past he wants to rule until 2021, is stacking the decks in an increasingly tight race for the presidency.
Mr Chávez has been in power for more than 13 years and the opposition sees this year’s poll – due to take place on October 7 – as its best chance yet of ousting one of Latin America’s most controversial leaders. Henrique Capriles, the pro-business opposition leader, is Mr Chávez’s main rival. Now allegations of government electoral abuses have raised fears about how far will Mr Chávez go to ensure his victory.
“This is corruption, a crime,” says Eduardo Semtei, a former member of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), which oversees the election, of Mr Chávez’s ‘chain broadcasts’.
Mr Semtei, who now advises the opposition, criticises the “fawning” body for abandoning its duties. “Everyone knows that four of the CNE’s five directors are pro-Chávez – that’s one thing. But it’s not OK that they ignore . . . government abuses,” he says.
The CNE’s partial treatment was evident last month when it sought to prevent Mr Capriles from wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with the colours of the national flag. It claimed this violated campaign regulations – although it has never questioned the president’s use of national symbols in his own clothing and logos.
“Without a doubt the greatest weakness of the process lies in the inequitable conditions of competition,” according to a report on Venezuela’s elections released by the Wilson Center, a US think-tank. Although it described the voting system itself as “reliable”, it criticised the politicisation of the electoral council, Mr Chávez’s media advantage and opaque campaign financing.
A major opposition gripe is Mr Chávez’s almost unlimited access to state oil revenues – Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world – that allows him to “buy” votes by investing heavily in his popular social programmes. Central government spending grew by 41.1 per cent in real terms last month. By contrast, Mr Capriles must raise campaign funds privately.
And while the president also has almost unlimited access to television time, which he routinely uses to trumpet the government’s achievements and assail his rival – calling him a “pig” and a “loser” – Mr Capriles’ enjoys far less airtime.
Maryclen Stelling, a pro-government sociologist who is also a CNE substitute director, admits that the boundary between Mr Chávez’s role as president and candidate is “blurred”. “It’s difficult to prove when Chávez is no longer acting as president but as candidate,” she said.
‘The greatest weakness . . . lies in the inequitable conditions ofcompetition’
Adding to the tension are opposition allegations that people fear they will lose their jobs if they fail to vote for Mr Chávez. Many Venezuelans fear their vote will not be secret. The names of signatories of a petition for a 2004 referendum that attempted to unseat Mr Chávez were made public. The signatories were later blacklisted by government ministries.
Despite the huge challenges he faces, Mr Capriles is confident he can win. “This is David against Goliath,” he told the Financial Times. Mr Capriles won the governorship of Venezuela’s second most populous state in 2008 against one of Mr Chávez’s closest allies. “Nobody ever gave me an election victory as a present.”
At least both sides recognise the validity of Venezuela’s computer-encrypted voting system. “The voting system has so many security controls that if voting counts are manipulated it will be detectable,” said Jennifer McCoy, director of the Americas programme at the Carter Center, which works to promote human rights. “It will be very difficult to change the result on a large scale.”
Furthermore, analysts point out that Mr Chávez derives his legitimacy from winning democratic elections. In 2007, he recognised defeat in a constitutional referendum, although he called the opposition’s win “a victory of sh*t”.
Mr Semtei says that if opposition election observers are present at all voting centres, the probability of fraud will be “nil”. “But the probability that the [government] will try is one hundred per cent.”
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Mr Chávez’s opponents
cite this as just another example of how the socialist leader, who has said in
the past he wants to rule until 2021, is stacking the decks in an increasingly
tight race for the presidency.
Mr Chávez has been in
power for more than 13 years and the opposition sees this year’s poll – due to take place on
October 7 – as its best chance yet of ousting one of Latin America’s most
controversial leaders. Henrique Capriles, the pro-business opposition leader,
is Mr Chávez’s main rival. Now allegations of government electoral abuses have
raised fears about how far will Mr Chávez go to ensure his victory.
“This is corruption,
a crime,” says Eduardo Semtei, a former member of Venezuela’s National
Electoral Council (CNE), which oversees the election, of Mr Chávez’s ‘chain
broadcasts’.
Mr Semtei, who now
advises the opposition, criticises the “fawning” body for abandoning its
duties. “Everyone knows that four of the CNE’s five directors are pro-Chávez –
that’s one thing. But it’s not OK that they ignore . . . government abuses,” he says.
The CNE’s partial
treatment was evident last month when it sought to prevent Mr Capriles from
wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with the colours of the national flag. It
claimed this violated campaign regulations – although it has never questioned
the president’s use of national symbols in his own clothing and logos.
“Without a doubt the
greatest weakness of the process lies in the inequitable conditions of
competition,” according to a report on Venezuela’s elections released by the
Wilson Center, a US think-tank. Although it described the voting system itself
as “reliable”, it criticised the politicisation of the electoral council, Mr
Chávez’s media advantage and opaque campaign financing.
A major opposition
gripe is Mr Chávez’s almost unlimited access to state oil revenues– Venezuela has the largest
oil reserves in the world – that allows him to “buy” votes by investing heavily
in his popular social programmes. Central government spending grew by 41.1 per
cent in real terms last month. By contrast, Mr Capriles must raise campaign
funds privately.
And while the
president also has almost unlimited access to television time, which he routinely
uses to trumpet the government’s achievements and assail his rival – calling
him a “pig” and a “loser” – Mr Capriles’ enjoys far less airtime.
Maryclen Stelling, a
pro-government sociologist who is also a CNE substitute director, admits that
the boundary between Mr Chávez’s role as president and candidate is “blurred”.
“It’s difficult to prove when Chávez is no longer acting as president but as
candidate,” she said.
‘The greatest
weakness . . . lies in the inequitable conditions ofcompetition’
Adding to the tension
are opposition allegations that people fear they will lose their jobs if they
fail to vote for Mr Chávez. Many Venezuelans
fear their vote will not be secret. The names of
signatories of a petition for a 2004 referendum that attempted to unseat Mr
Chávez were made public. The signatories were later blacklisted by government
ministries.
Despite the huge
challenges he faces, Mr Capriles is confident he can win. “This is David
against Goliath,” he told the Financial Times. Mr Capriles won the governorship
of Venezuela’s second most populous state in 2008 against one of Mr Chávez’s
closest allies. “Nobody ever gave me an election victory as a present.”
At least both sides
recognise the validity of Venezuela’s computer-encrypted voting system. “The
voting system has so many security controls that if voting counts are
manipulated it will be detectable,” said Jennifer McCoy, director of the
Americas programme at the Carter Center, which works to promote human rights.
“It will be very difficult to change the result on a large scale.”
Furthermore, analysts
point out that Mr Chávez derives his legitimacy from winning democratic elections.
In 2007, he recognised defeat in a constitutional referendum, although he
called the opposition’s win “a victory of sh*t”.
Mr Semtei says that
if opposition election observers are present at all voting centres, the
probability of fraud will be “nil”. “But the probability that the [government]
will try is one hundred per cent.”
Copyright The
Financial Times Limited 2012. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
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