Concerns linger despite valid vote
The Miami Herald
December 7, 2005

International observers said Sunday's Venezuelan elections were legitimate. However, the watchers said there was widespread distrust of the government.
By PHIL GUNSON
Special to the Herald

CARACAS - Latin American and European election observers Tuesday said Venezuela's weekend legislative balloting seemed fair but noted several concerns and added that it showed the deep public distrust of the electoral council dominated by firebrand President Hugo Chávez.

Chávez backers appeared to have won all 167 National Assembly seats after most of the opposition boycotted the vote, alleging a lack of guarantees for a fair ballot. Official tallies showed only 25 percent of the electorate turned out.

Election observers from the Organization of American States and the European Union, in reports issued Tuesday, did not question the results. But both pointed to concerns, among them doubts about the voter registry, the use of government resources to support some candidates and a lack of controls on campaign spending.

''Broad sectors of Venezuelan society have no confidence either in the electoral process or the independence of the electoral authority,'' the EU observers wrote. The National Electoral Council is dominated by supporters of Chávez.

The OAS report mentioned the decision to keep some polling places open beyond the 4 p.m. closing time. This coincided, it noted, with ``an increase in the government's campaign to increase participation in the final hours.''

At the 4 p.m. deadline only 19 percent of voters had cast their ballots, international observers told The Herald. The opposition election-monitoring group Súmate claims that nearly a third of the votes were cast after 4 p.m.

The extension of the closing hours ''helped to create uncertainty and suspicion,'' the OAS said in its statement, although it fell short of saying the government had inflated the polling numbers, as some opposition groups claim.

Other concerns included the illegal participation of government officials, including ministers, and public resources in the campaign, and the abuse of state media and the president's right to take over the airwaves at any point and for an unlimited time.

Western diplomats in Caracas meanwhile criticized what they said were last-minute changes to soften the wording of the OAS report -- and alleged that the changes were made under strong pressure from the Venezuelan government.

The Herald was told by diplomats from both EU and OAS member states that OAS observer mission chief Rubén Perina received calls from Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel and electoral council chairman Jorge Rodríguez after the draft report had already been prepared.

The OAS had planned to present its report at a news conference early Tuesday. But it canceled the conference at the last minute and the report was distributed on the Internet.

OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza said the low turnout was ''reason for concern.'' He also faulted the opposition for pulling out even though electoral authorities had agreed to the conditions it demanded.

''They shouldn't have done that,'' he told The Herald in Washington.

Chávez has alleged the opposition called the boycott because polls showed they were going to lose, and accused Washington of supporting the boycott as part of a larger plan to ''destabilize'' the country. Washington and the opposition have denied the accusations.

The 60-member OAS mission's report also expressed concern about growing political polarization in Venezuela and urged election officials ''to establish necessary conditions for the participation of all sectors'' of Venezuelan society.

''Democratic political coexistence in Venezuela can only be achieved through the regaining of trust,'' the OAS report said.

Herald correspondent Pablo Bachelet contributed to this report from Washington.


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