2023:
Maria Machado’s Win in the Presidential Primary Was Denounced as a “Scam”
(UPDATED)
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 five-member 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 alternate 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]
A separate
opposition coalition, the Democratic Alliance, chose to not participate in the
primary 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. 3,000 polling stations were set up in private
homes, schools, businesses, and in parks and public squares.[10] Ballots
arrived at some centers after the time polls were scheduled to open.[12] 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
Rampersad, 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, 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]
Machado’s
“win” of the Primary has been regularly cited as evidence of her popularity and
to discredit other opposition politicians.[15]
1. Venezuelanalysis, Venezuela’s Opposition to
Self-Organize Primary Contest after National Electoral Council Resignations, June
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, October 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.
15.New York Times, Trump’s Advice to Venezuela’s Democracy
Champion: Don’t Go Home, March 12, 2026
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