Location Venezuela | ||
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Venezuela in October 2018.
Contents
Background
Following the death of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela faced a severe socioeconomic crisis during the presidency of his successor, Nicolas Maduro. Due to the country's high levels of urban violence, inflation, and chronic shortages of basic goods attributed to economic policies such as strict price controls, civil insurrection in Venezuela culminated into the 2014–17 protests. Protests occurred over the years, with demonstrations occurring in various sizes depending on the events Venezuelans were facing during the crisis.
After facing years of crisis, the Venezuelan opposition pursued a recall referendum against President Maduro, presenting a petition to the CNE on 2 May 2016. By August 2016, the momentum to recall President Maduro appeared to be progressing, with the CNE setting a date for the second phase of collecting signatures, though it made the schedule strenuous, stretching the process into 2017 which made it impossible for the opposition to activate new presidential elections. On 21 October 2016, the CNE suspended the referendum only days before preliminary signature-gatherings were to be held. The CNE blamed alleged voter fraud as the reason for the cancellation of the referendum. International observers criticized the move, stating that CNE's decision made Maduro look as if he were seeking to rule as a dictator. Days after the recall movement was cancelled, 1.2 million Venezuelans protested throughout the country against the move, demanding President Maduro to leave office, with Caracas protests remaining calm while protests in other states resulted in clashes between demonstrators and authorities, leaving one policeman dead, 120 injured and 147 arrested. That day the opposition gave President Maduro a deadline of 3 November 2013 to hold elections, with opposition leader Henrique Capriles stating, "Today we are giving a deadline to the government. I tell the coward who is in Miraflores ... that on 3 November the Venezuelan people are coming to Caracas because we are going to Miraflores". By 7 December 2016, dialogue halted between the two
Days later on 1 November 2016, then National Assembly President and opposition leader Henry Ramos Allup announced the cancellation of the 3 November march to the Miraflores presidential palace, with Vatican-led dialogue between the opposition and the Bolivarian government beginning. Two months later on 13 January 2017 after talks stalled, the Vatican officially pulled out of the dialogue. Further protests were much smaller due to the fear of repression, with the opposition organizing surprise protests instead of organized mass marches. The opposition then began to focus on its electoral efforts, with only sporadic protests occurring thereafter.
Electoral system
The President of Venezuela is elected by plurality in a single round of voting.
The elections will be overseen by the National Electoral Council, with poll workers drafted via a lottery of registered voters. Polling places are equipped with multiple high-tech touch-screen DRE voting machines, one to a "mesa electoral", or voting "table". After the vote is cast, each machine prints out a paper ballot, or VVPAT, which is inspected by the voter and deposited in a ballot box belonging to the machine's table. The voting machines perform in a stand-alone fashion, disconnected from any network until the polls close. Voting session closure at each of the voting stations in a given polling center is determined either by the lack of further voters after the lines have emptied, or by the hour, at the discretion of the president of the voting table.
As part of the election administration the National Electoral Council planned a post-election audit of 54% of polling places, comparing the electronic records with the paper trail.
MUD
In March 2017, parties in the Democratic Unity Roundtable decided who would be their candidate for the 2018 presidential elections. On 14 March 2017, Popular Will announced that Leopoldo López, the party's National Coordinator who is currently imprisoned for his role in leading the 2014 Venezuelan protests against President Maduro, was chosen to be their candidate for the MUD primaries. Days later on 20 March 2017, Justice First chose Henrique Capriles Radonski to be their candidate for the primaries, his third run for the presidency, with his previous attempts occurring in the 2012 and 2013 Venezuelan presidential election. On 21 March 2017, Henry Ramos Allup, a veteran politician in Venezuela, was chosen to be the candidate for the Democratic Action.