Elections in Venezuela

This post is not related to competition law-procurement issues, at least not if seeing from a general point of view and it is not my intention to write about politics in this space. I do write about politics but I keep my opinion within my circle of friends and if I do, I tend to write in Spanish.

The results of the Venezuelan elections, however, oblige me to make some general remarks in this blog.

If you are not aware of it, this past Sunday Hugo Chávez was re-elected as president of Venezuela for a new period of 6 years (believe it or not, we have 6 years presidency with free reelection, that is right, the president can be president forever). Chávez won with 54% of the votes and the opposition candidate obtained 45% of the votes. A 9% vote difference. Sounds like a lot and, probably, it is. The difference, however, is that Chávez used to win the past 14 years (yes, fourteen) with 20-40% of difference to the runner up.

Facts and figures of the election (in Spanish but easy to grasp) 

I will now make a translation of a personal comment I wrote in Spanish:

“A lot of people has lost hope (including my parents) and have started to think that democracy is over, that the country is gone and that Mayan prophecies about the end of the days will occur. I refrain myself from thinking so. I do not live in Venezuela not because I do not want to, but because life has decided so. I love my country and I would like to go back. Venezuela is formed of chavistas and non-chavistas. The country belongs to all of us. Whether you like it or not.

The problem does not lie in the "thoughtless chavistas", but rather on the lack of political maturity and in a pseudo-democratic system without any checks and balances.

This past Sunday there was no fraud. Chávez is majority. The fraud lies in the abuse of public funds to finance the government´s party and, let's be honest; we have been during 14 years subject to abuse of TV broadcastings of presidential speeches (without any kind of time-limit and in all TV broadcasters), brain washing and indoctrination.

Those who say: "I won’t vote again" are failing to see the opportunity that was created this past Sunday. There were 2 million newer voters against the regime. Two million. That is a lot of people.

Vote, because it is the only way to transform Venezuela into what you preach of. Vote because the PSUV (Chávez party) is not equivalent to Chávez, and vote because in a democracy you choose: President, Congress, Governors and Mayors. Each and every one of them counts and is part of your country.

In sum, vote because it what makes you call yourself democratic”.