Venezuela Elections: Resurgent Chavismo and 'Unrecognised' Democracy

http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/08/venezuela-elections-resurgent-chavismo-and-unrecognised-democracy/
Date Written:  2017-08-01
Publisher:  Dissident Voice
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21180

After weeks of imperialist threats and opposition violence, the elections for the Constituent Assembly (ANC) in Venezuela took place on July 30th. The result was a massive turnout of over 8 million voters, around 41% of the electorate, which gave chavismo a much-needed shot in the arm. The western media reacted by trying to dispute the number and sticking even closer to the narrative being pushed by the opposition and the US State Department.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

On July 16th the Venezuelan opposition held a "consultation" in which it called on its supporters to symbolically reject the Constituent Assembly, appeal for military coup and support a so-called "national unity" government. Here is how Associated Press reported on the turnout:

The opposition said 7.6 million Venezuelans participated in Sunday's symbolic referendum, which the government labelled an internal party poll with no relevance for the country.

There is no mention of the fact that people were free to vote more than once, that no electoral roll was used and that no audit was possible because everything was burned at the end of the day. Apart from this, in a recent article we explored other reasons why this total was very doubtful, based on simple estimations given the number of voting booths available. A phone conversation between opposition leaders in Aragua state also revealed how the numbers were being cooked.