Chavez's Rivals Are Withdrawing From Elections
Polarization in Venezuela Intensifies as Leftist Leader Could Consolidate Power
By JOSE DE CORDOBA and DAVID LUHNOW in Mexico City
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 30, 2005; Page A16

Charging that Venezuela's electoral process was fatally flawed, the country's main opposition party withdrew from coming congressional elections, a move that intensifies the country's political polarization and may help leftist President Hugo Chavez consolidate his already tight grip on power.

The center-left Democratic Action Party and two smaller parties said they lacked confidence in the country's electronic voting system, which they said could be used to tilt the vote in favor of Mr. Chavez or identify opposition voters. Mr. Chavez's government bristled at the charges, and said it would hold elections as scheduled on Sunday. "The Democratic Action Party has withdrawn from the elections. Very good. They can go to hell," said Vice President José Vicente Rangel.

The withdrawal of the Democratic Action Party, known as AD in Venezuela, is a blow to one of Latin America's oldest-running democracies and will cast doubt over the election's legitimacy. Analysts said the pullout only further divides the fractured opposition movement against Mr. Chavez and will likely increase his margin of victory, potentially giving him power to enact Constitutional changes including ending presidential term limits.

At the moment, pro-Chavez parties hold just over half the 165-seat assembly. AD and two smaller parties that withdrew from the vote currently hold 36 seats. The pullout makes it almost certain Mr. Chavez will win the two-thirds majority he needs for Constitutional changes.

Among the proposals under discussions is a constitutional amendment that would permit Mr. Chavez to run as many times as he likes for re-election. At the moment, he would be forced to step down in 2012 if he wins next year's presidential vote. Another proposal would weaken the definition of private property.

"The end result is that Chavez will remain totally unchallenged," said Michael Shifter, an analyst at Washington's Inter-American Dialogue.

Since his 1998 election, Mr. Chavez has stacked the courts with loyalists and curbed Congress's power. He has also pushed through laws tightening control over the media, sparking accusations from the opposition that he wants to become a de facto dictator.

A close friend and ally of Latin America's sole remaining dictator, Cuba's Fidel Castro, Mr. Chavez says he wants to turn Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, into a Socialist country. Buoyed by high oil prices, Mr. Chavez has spent billions in social programs, boosting his popularity, which polls say is about 70%, but risking the country's long-term financial stability.

AD and Copei, another party that withdrew from the election, dominated the country's political landscape for decades, often through corruption and patronage, before Mr. Chavez's outsider run to the presidency on a platform to use the country's oil wealth to help the poor. Sunday's vote would mark the first time neither party took part in an election since Venezuela's last military dictatorship ended in 1958.

The latest controversy began last week, when election officials allowed opposition parties to examine electronic voting machines that have been used in past elections and which the opposition has long claimed could be tampered with to help Mr. Chavez.

After the audit, opposition parties became convinced the voting machines, in conjunction with a fingerprint machine that registered every voter as they entered the voting booth, could be used to keep a record of how voters cast their ballots -- potentially allowing the government to punish opposition voters after the fact.

The Organization of American States, which is monitoring the election, got Venezuelan authorities to agree to scrap the fingerprint machine for Sunday's vote, but opposition parties were not satisfied.The OAS said yesterday it will continue to monitor Sunday's vote, giving a boost to Mr. Chavez.


THE NEW YORK TIMES
November 30, 2005
3 Anti-Chávez Parties Pull Out of Election
By JUAN FORERO
 

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Nov. 29 - Accusing Venezuelan electoral officials of favoring that country's populist government, three opposition parties announced Tuesday that they would pull out of congressional elections scheduled for Sunday.

The withdrawal of the three parties, two of which governed Venezuela for four decades until President Hugo Chávez won office in 1998, could give the leftist governing party overwhelming control of the 167-member National Assembly. If Mr. Chávez's slim majority in the Assembly increases to a two-thirds majority, the government will be poised to obtain a range of constitutional reforms, like an extension of the president's term.

"Under these conditions, we cannot participate in the electoral process," Henry Ramos, the secretary general of Democratic Action, told reporters on Tuesday.

Democratic Action and officials of two other parties, the Social Christian Party, or Copei, and the smaller Project Venezuela, accused the electoral authorities of failing to correct errors in the voter registry and in electronic voting equipment, opening the door to fraud and discrimination against opponents of the government.

"Across this country, there is a profound lack of confidence in the electoral arbiter because it does not say the truth," said César Pérez Vivas, secretary general of Copei, which had asked that the elections be delayed.

Mr. Chávez, though, called the opposition pullout "political sabotage" and said it would not discredit his government. Other officials said the vote would take place as planned and harshly accused the opposition of withdrawing because it faced a dire outcome at the voting booth.

"Very well, let them go to hell," Vice President José Vicente Rangel, told reporters. "They know they are defeated because they see the polls, too."

Mr. Rangel and allies of the president also accused the United States of playing a role in the collective withdrawal of the parties, noting that an election-monitoring group that receives financing from Washington, Súmate, called for Venezuelans to gather in churches on Sunday and raise their voices in anti-government prayer.

The three parties that are withdrawing hold 36 seats in the Assembly. Three other important opposition parties will take part in the election, but the absence of Democratic Action and Copei is expected to be a blessing for Mr. Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement and its allies, which control nearly 90 seats.

"It's a disaster, a disaster for the opposition," Luis Vicente León, a political analysts who heads the Datanalisis polling company, said by phone from Caracas. "Only a small part of the opposition will participate, and that's a disaster."

Mr. León said the withdrawal of the parties would give Mr. Chávez and his allies more than 80 percent of the National Assembly, 10 percent more than they would have won had the opposition parties not withdrawn.

Since their resounding defeat in a recall referendum against Mr. Chávez last year, an opposition umbrella group has disappeared and many of its leaders have fallen into obscurity. Last year, the government swept regional elections, leaving the opposition in control of only two of 23 states.

Mr. Chávez, meanwhile, has until recently held a popularity rating approaching 70 percent as his government spends generously on social programs for the poor. The president is expected to be easily re-elected to another six-year term next year.



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