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Published: Monday, December 05, 2005<br>
Bylined to: <a href="mailto:editors@venezuelanalysis.com">Gregory
Wilpert</a> <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=5 color="#7F0000">MVR wins 114 or 68% of
167 seats in Venezuela's new National Assembly<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2><b>Venezuelanalysis.com Gregory
Wilpert:</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=3> Chavez’ party, the
Movement for the Fifth Republic (MVR), won 114 or 68% of the 167 seats in
the new National Assembly, according to preliminary results that MVR
deputy William Lara announced this evening. Pro-Chavez parties won all
167 seats in the new National Assembly. <br><br>
The president of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), Jorge
Rodriguez, said that with 79% of the voting center results examined,
voter turnout so far was at 25%. A total of 2.9 million votes had been
counted so far, meaning that about 3.67 million Venezuelans cast ballots
on Sunday. <br><br>
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<font face="Georgia" size=2><b>The preparations, voting, and dismantling
of the voting centers all proceeded normally, explained Rodriguez, with
no incidents to speak of. <br><br>
</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=3>Many voting centers had to open
late, though, because citizens who were asked to staff the centers did
not show up, particularly in upper middle class neighborhoods, where the
opposition parties that called for a boycott, are especially strong.
<br><br>
While Rodriguez did not say what percentage of the vote pro-Chavez
parties and candidates got for the National Assembly, he did specify that
for the Latin American parliament the six main pro-Chavez parties, MVR,
Podemos, PCV, PPT, MEP, and UPV, won 88.8% of the vote. <br><br>
That Chavez’ MVR party alone won 114 seats in the National Assembly,
means that his party has slightly over the two thirds majority needed to
make constitutional amendments and key appointments. <br><br>
Earlier in the day, as it became clear that voter turn-out was lower than
leaders of pro-government parties had predicted, several opposition
leaders said that the new National Assembly would have no legitimacy.
Maria Corina Machado, who is one of the directors of the opposition NGO
Sumate, said, “From a pluri-party parliament we pass to a mono-party
parliament that does not represent the broad sectors of the population.
Today, a National Assembly is born that is wounded in its legitimacy.”
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<font face="Georgia" size=2><b>MVR spokesperson William Lara contradicted
this assessment, saying “there are deputies from social groups,
independent personalities ... today the Venezuelan people have elected a
pluri-party National Assembly.” <br><br>
</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=3>Jesse Chacon, the Minister of the
Interior and of Justice, also held a press conference, in which he argued
that the last time parliamentary elections were held separately from
presidential elections was in 1998. The party Accion Democratica (AD) won
that vote, with the support of merely 11.24% of the total population
registered to vote. During the 2000 parliamentary elections, Chavez’s MVR
party received support from 17% of registered voters. <br><br>
According to Chacon, any result in these elections where the MVR obtains
support from more than 11% of those registered to vote would give the MVR
greater legitimacy to control the National Assembly than AD had in 1998
and anything greater than 17% would give it greater legitimacy than the
last National Assembly had. In accordance with such a calculation, the
MVR coalition obtained the support of about 22% of all registered voters
during this election <i>(about 3 million votes out of 14 million
registered voters)</i>. <br><br>
Education Minister Aristobulo Isturiz explained on TV talk show that this
type of calculation is the only calculation that makes sense for
establishing a reference point because the several key opposition parties
called for a boycott of today’s vote.<br><br>
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<dd>In the course of the day, it was clear that opposition strongholds
had extremely low turnout, of perhaps 10% of voters, while pro-Chavez
neighborhoods saw much stronger participation. <br><br>
</dl><font face="Georgia" size=3>CNE president Rodriguez cited another
factor that influenced turnout today, besides the boycott, which was
"severe" weather conditions in several states, including the
capital, which made voting more difficult than usual. <br><br>
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