2023:
Maria Machado’s Win in the Presidential Primary Was Denounced as a “Scam”
The Democratic Unity Platform (PUD) was a coalition of
political parties, civil society and trade unions opposed to the government of
President Nicolas Maduro. PUD appointed a National Primary Commission (CNP) to
organize an election to pick an opposition candidate for the 2024 Presidential
election. Maria Machado (Leader of the
Vente Venezuela party) announced her candidacy and Carlos Prosperi was
nominated by the Democratic Action party. Thirteen candidates announced for the
Primary. The Primary was scheduled for October 2023.
The CNP announced that it would self-organize the primary
vote and count the ballots manually. [1] That decision led to the resignation
of Rafael Arraiz Lucca, one of the CNP’s substitute members, who argued that
without the National Electoral Council (CNE) an inclusive primary process would
be “impossible.” [1] Analysts warned that a manual voting process would be more
vulnerable to vote rigging.[3] On July 26, 2023, Maria Carolina Uzcategui
resigned as VP of the CNP saying that “the conditions are not right” for the
Primary to be a “broad consultation” and that it should be rescheduled with the
CNE. [9] She said that the Primary would be vulnerable to the weather since so
many polling stations were to be located outside.
A separate opposition coalition the Democratic Alliance chose
to not participate in the primary with one leader saying: “We said we would
participate if the process was inclusive and if the CNE supervised the process,
and it seems that none of those things are happening.” [2] In September 2023,
the National Electoral Council (CNE) offered the use of its automated voting
system for the Primary. The CNP refused the offer. [3] The CNP picked Sumate
to conduct the voting process. Carlos Prosperi complained that this was
unfair since Sumate was an NGO founded by Machado.
The Primary was held on October 22, 2023. All 21 million
registered voters were allowed to participate. About 30% of the 3,000 polling
stations were located in private homes and a similar percentage were in parks
and public squares with the remainder being in offices.[10] Voting centers in
Caracas were not set up by the time people began lining up to vote. Ballots
arrived at some centers after the time polls were scheduled to open.[12] At
11AM, a torrential downpour shut down some outdoor voting centers. Prosperi
stated that the members of his campaign team who volunteered to be poll
watchers were not chosen and that polling centers were relocated less than 24
hours before the election. As a result, many people did not know where to
vote.[10][11]. Vote-counting at many outdoor polling stations occurred in very
poor light.
The CNP claimed that more than 2.4 million people voted and
that Machado had won with 92.56% of the vote [4]. Carlos Prosperi was reported
to have received 4.45% of the vote. The vote organizers promised to release
detailed results on line but failed to do so. Prosperi stated that he would not
accept the “biased” result and claimed that the problems of the day were a
consequence of not having used the technical support of the CNE. He described
the election day process as a “disaster.” [11]The primary participation figures
drew controversy with Nelson Rampersan, an opposition electoral expert,
claiming that turnout did not exceed 520,000.[13] National Assembly President
Jorge Rodriguez said that the government estimated that 600,000 people voted.
[13] Rodriguez called the Primary a “huge fraud” and a “scam.” [14]
Jose Brito, an opposition member of the Democratic Alliance,
requested an injunction from the Supreme Court to suspend the opposition
primary process citing “illegal and unconstitutional acts.” [6] On October 30,
the Court suspended the opposition’s entire primary election process, including
its result, ruling that the Primary may have been in violation of the Law.[7] The
Court ordered organizers to hand over all documents related to its creation,
candidate registration, ballots and tally sheets. On October 25, the Attorney General Tarek Saab
agreed with Brito’s request to start a criminal investigation into accusations
of electoral violations, financial crimes and conspiracy.[5] Money laundering
was to be investigated since the primary was financed with large sums of money
and the identity of who sent them was unknown. [8]. On November 11, the
President of the CNP, Jesus Maria Casal, admitted to the Attorney General that Sumate
had inflated the results of the votes for Machado to falsely show Machado
having received some two million votes. [8]
1. Venezuelanalysis, Venezuela’s Opposition to
Self-Organize Primary Contest after National Electoral Council Resignations,6/20/2023.
2. Cronica Uno, In the Democratic Alliance, they consider
their non-participation in the primary almost a given, January 10, 2023.
3. Venezuelanalysis, Venezuelan Opposition Insists on
Manual Voting for Primary Election, October 5, 2023.
4. New York Times, Venezuela Tries to Squash Opposition
Campaign Before it Even Starts, October 31, 2023.
5. Reuters, Venezuela launches criminal investigation into
opposition’s presidential primary, October 25, 2023.
6. Venezuelanalysis, Venezuelan Supreme Court Suspends
Opposition Primaries, October 31, 2023.
7. PBS News, Venezuela’s high court suspends the oppositions
primary election process, including its result, October 30, 2023.
8. Orinoco Tribune, Maria Corina Machado’s NGO Inflated
Primaries Results, CNP Head Casal Confesses, November 11, 2023.
9. Tal Cual, Maria Carolina Uzcategui calls for the
suspension of primaries because “the conditions are not right,” September
7, 2023.
10. Tal Cual, Commission responds to Prosperi: Accreditations
for polling station members have already been delivered, 10/20/2023..
11. Tal Cual, Carlos Prosperi:” We cannot expect different
results by Repeating Mistakes.” October 23, 2023.
12. VOA, Venezuelan Opposition Holds Presidential Primary,
October 22, 2023.
13. Venezuelanalysis, Far-right Maria Corina Machado wins
opposition Primary Elections, October 23, 2023.
14. Orinoco Tribune, Jorge Rodriguez Provides Evidence of
Electoral Fraud in Venezuela’s Opposition Primaries, October 25, 2023.
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