Misplaced Pages

1999 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from 1999 Venezuelan Constitutional Assembly election)
Politics of Venezuela
  • Constitution
  • Law
Executive
Legislature
Judiciary
Federal divisions
Elections
Foreign relations
flag Venezuela portal

Constituent Assembly elections were held in Venezuela on 25 July 1999, following a referendum in April on convening one.

Background

For the election two large coalitions were created; Patriotic Pole, which consisted of the Fifth Republic Movement, the Movement for Socialism, Fatherland for All, the Communist Party of Venezuela, the People's Electoral Movement and some other minor parties, and Democratic Pole consisting of Democratic Action, Copei, Project Venezuela and Convergencia.

The electoral bases proposed by President Hugo Chávez and revised by the CNE were approved. A proportional representation system to select of the members of the National Constituent Assembly was discarded, and in its place a personalized uninominal direct representation system was established, which divided the country into two great national circuits and one electoral circuit for each state, a system in disuse since the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez.

Conduct

Each voter had 10 votes. Voter turnout was 46.2%.

Results

The result of the election of constituents was the over-representation of Chavismo in the Constituent Assembly and a crushing defeat for the opposition, which had once again gone to the polls divided. With 65% of the votes, Chavismo obtained more than 95% of the constituents. The Patriotic Pole won 121 of the 128 seats, whilst an additional three seats were taken by representatives of indigenous communities elected by indigenous associations. Although the great majority of the candidates were civil society members, outside the political parties, the lack of unity atomized their efforts. As such, 33% of the forces that voted for candidates unrelated to the Chavismo only managed to have seven constituents, one of them being Antonia Muñoz, a dissident Chavista who soon rejoined the ruling party.

PartyVotes%Seats
Patriotic Pole29,424,63565.80121
Democratic Pole9,873,22322.084
Other parties5,423,18312.133
Indigenous representatives3
Total44,721,041100.00131
Total votes5,079,445–
Registered voters/turnout10,986,87146.23
Source: Nohlen

Aftermath

Political parties and civil associations were marginalized from the constituent process, and the role of opposition then fell on the state institutions, where the Congress and the Supreme Court stand out. After the elections, Democratic Action and Copei experienced internal crises: the former announced new base elections to renew the party, and the directive of the latter resigned immediately.

See also

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p555 ISBN 978-0-19-928358-3
  2. ^ Nohlen, p569
  3. Rachadell, Manuel (January–June 2010). "El sistema electoral en la Ley Orgánica de Procesos Electorales" (PDF). Provincia (23): 127–155. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  4. ^ Nohlen, p568
  5. ^ Combellas, Ricardo (January 2003). "El proceso constituyente y la Constitución de 1999". Politeia. 26 (30): 100–113. ISSN 0303-9757. Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  6. "El huracán Hugo arrasó con todo". Página/12. 28 July 1999. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
Venezuela Elections and referendums in Venezuela
Presidential elections
Parliamentary elections
Regional elections
Municipal elections
Constituent Assemblies
Referendums
Categories: