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2006 Venezuelan presidential election

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The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will hold presidential elections on 3 December 2006. A president will be elected for a six-year term, to begin on 10 January 2007.

Main candidates

International Observers

Campaign platforms

Chávez

Chávez's campaign manager Rafael Lacava said that the campaign will be based on defending Venezuela's national sovereignty and promoting world peace, in contrast to the imperialist policies of U.S. President George W. Bush. According to Unión Radio, Lacava added that a campaign theme will be the "country's freedom to no longer be a North American colony".

According to the Associated Press, Chávez launched his campaign "with warnings that Washington is trying to undermine December's presidential vote and destabilize Venezuela", saying "I am the candidate of the revolution and without a doubt I am the candidate of the national majority," dismissing other candidates as "tools of the U.S. government". El Universal reports that Chávez said, "In this electoral process there are two candidates only, namely Hugo Chávez and George W. Bush."

Chávez promised that, if elected, he will personally convoke a midterm recall referendum in the year 2010 without the need for petition signatures as was the case with the 2004 recall referendum. This consult would allow the voters of Venezuela to remove him from his post. He has said that if he won that recall referendum, he would then call for a referendum to ask the people for indefinite reelection to be put into the constitution.

Rosales

Rosales said that the backbone of his government program will be the social arena, saying it will be a "sound and well defined" program, including a "fair allocation of oil revenues by means of two axes – minimum wage for all unemployed and direct contribution to the underprivileged". The latter being promoted as Mi Negra which is a debit card handed out to the poor with monthly deposits from 20% of oil industry profits, A poll shows 59% of the Venezuelan people rejected the Mi Negra program, prefering stable jobs.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Rosales stated that Chávez was vulnerable on his "massive foreign aid programs, government-approved takeovers of land and buildings, and the perception that crime is increasing". Rosales said, "We will distribute land to the peasants, but we will buy it in such a way as to respect the principle of private property, just as we will respect those of human rights and social justice." Rosales would halt oil giveaways, "including sales of discounted oil to Cuba, until Venezuela reduced its high poverty rate."

The Associated Press reports that Rosales accuses Chávez of "overspending on a military buildup" and pledged "to use Venezuela's oil wealth to help the poor and improve education and health care", ridiculing Chávez's "claims of a possible war with the U.S." and saying, "Venezuela's real war should be against rampant street crime."

Campaign slogans and ads

Chávez

Chávez launched his campaign with a slogan of 10 Millones de votos (10 million votes), On multiple occasions the more combatitive "10 millones por el buche" (10 million votes down their throats) is said. On 17 August, 2006, while leading the oath at the national campaign headquarters (Comando Miranda), Chávez acknowledged that 10 million votes would be hard to attain.

Since 9 October, Chávez campaign is using the slogans por amor (for love) and Chávez, victoria de Venezuela (Chávez, Venezuela's victory). They will be also using the slogan uh, ah, Chávez no se va (ooh, ah, Chávez won't go) from the 2004 recall referendum campaign. A poll made by the firm Cifras Escenarios reported that 76.7% of Venezuelans liked the love message.. The English translation of the message is as follows:

Always, I have done everything out of love.

For the love of trees and rivers, I became a painter

For the love of knowledge, studies, I left my dearest village, to study

For the love of sports I became a ball player

For the love of the motherland I became a soldier

For the love of the people I became President, you made me President

I have ruled these years out of love

For love we did Barrio Adentro

For love we did Mission Robinson

For love we did Mercal

We have done everything for love.

There is a lot left to do. I need more time.

I NEED YOUR VOTE. YOUR VOTE FOR LOVE.

Rosales

Atrévete con Manual Rosales is the Rosales campaign slogan.

¡Ni el imperio, ni el barbudo! (Neither the empire, nor the bearded one!) is a slogan used by Rosales in launching his campaign, intended to "hit Chávez where the Venezuelan comandante is most vulnerable: his penchant for giving away billions of dollars to foreign countries, while nearly half of the Venezuelan people live in poverty" referring to subsidized oil deals to both Cuba and the United States. "We are not going to be the empire's defenders," Rosales said. "The empire must respect our sovereignty, and we must respect the empire," and "we cannot be looking at societies like Cuba as a model to be copied. We want modernity, transformation, development."

Endorsements

Chávez

Rosales

Calling for absention

Predictions

Polls

Polling company Source Date published Hugo Chávez (%) Manuel Rosales (%)
Universidad Complutense de Madrid November 24, 2006 59.7 39.6
Zogby International November 24, 2006 60 31
Associated Press-Ipsos November 23, 2006 59 27
Instituto Venezolano de Análisis de Datos November 23, 2006 54.6 27.5
Observatorio Hannah Arendt* November 18, 2006 51 49
Penn, Shoen and Berland November 15, 2006 48 42
Datanálisis November 15, 2006 52 26
Centro de Estudios Políticos y Sociales November 15, 2006 58 40
Consultores XXI November 15, 2006 58.8 40
Hinterlaces November 9, 2006 45 27
Evans/McDonough November 7, 2006 57 35
IVAD November 3, 2006 53.2 28.1
Keller y Asociados+ November 2, 2006 52 48
Escenarios November 1, 2006 63.3 26
Ceca October 23, 2006 39.5 41.3
Zogby International October 23, 2006 59 24
Instituto Venezolano de Análisis de Datos October 12, 2006 51.5 22.7
Penn, Schoen & Berland September 16, 2006 50 37
Datanálisis September 13, 2006 58.2 17.4
People's Daily August 25, 2006 58.9 19.3
Miami Herald August 20, 2006 35 25

(*) Technical tie

(+) Results are political segmentation, not voter intention

International markets

International markets largely see a Chávez victory. Rafael de la Fuente of PNB Paribas states "The market expects a Chávez victory, they don't even question it". Ricardo Amorim of WestLB Research "The vision I see is that of a 20 point victory... We would be surprised if he does not win". Patrick Esteruelas of Euroasia Group sees Chávez winning by 60 percent. Also arguing that a high turnout benefits Chávez. Goldman and Sachs dismissed the close polling arguing "Chavez is the favorite to win the election due to vast control of logistical and financial state resources, and influence over key institutions"

Other candidates

The ballot will be the largest in Venezuelan history which, according to El Universal, is explained by division among adherents to grassroots Chavezism.


Campaign timeline

Primary elections

Civil society organization Súmate recommended procedures for a primary, to be held on 13 August 2006, to choose the opposition candidate for the December 2006 presidential elections. Teodoro Petkoff, a Chávez critic, said that Súmate's procedure was authoritarian, comparing it to The Carmona Decree. Nine other candidates agreed to the terms for holding a primary, confirming their desire to allow the citizens to choose the opposition candidate. Another candidate condemned Petkoff's remarks against Súmate, saying that Petkoff's statements don't help the country, and explaining that the conditions for holding a primary had been previously discussed between all of the candidates, including Petkoff. On 9 August, Súmate announced that the 13 August primary election would not be held, since the candidates had decided to back Manuel Rosales as the single opposition candidate. Machado said that the primary "initiative accomplished its goal and that Súmate would continue working to ensure clean elections and respect for citizens' rights."

Debate

Rosales demanded a public debate, saying Chávez should choose the TV channel where the debate would be broadcast. He also said "I am waiting for him (Chávez) to have a debate with me broadcast by all the TV channels to allow Venezuelans to know what is the project and the vision of the country he has and the project and vision we have".

Chávez has repeatedly declared he won't debate Rosales because the candidates from the opposition would be less able to talk than "a schoolboy or girl from a Bolivarian school".

Rallies

Chavez

"Red Tide takes Caracas" Pro-Chavez march on multiple avenues

On 26 November Chávez made his final rally in Caracas named the "Red Tide takes Caracas"; Reuters estimated hundreds of thousands participated.

Rosales

File:CCS-CIERRE 103.jpg
"Grande Avalancha" for Opposition cnadidate Manuel Rosales in Caracas

Rosales has held several large rallies around the country; the largest have been "Las Avalanchas" in Caracas. Rallies have been held in Anti-Chavez states such as Zulia and Pro-Chavez states such as Lara to try and get the Rosales campaign to be heard by as many people as possible. To close the election Campaign; Manuel Rosales, held a huge final rally in Caracas with an estimate by the Associated Press to be in the hundreds of thousands.

Concerns over the Electoral Registry

Opposition candidates and political parties have voiced concerns over the possible inaccuracies of the national electoral registry. Previous elections have shown that there might be a great number of deceased people still on the records. The CNE has audited the Registry on multiple occasions, the first occurred in early 2006 by IIDH-CAPEL (Costa Rican Human Right org) That concluded there was nothing found that delegitimized the registry A second review process started in mid 2006 where the CNE asked all the public universities of Venezuela to conduct also an external review of the electoral registry. However, the review project presented by the Central University of Venezuela, Simón Bolívar University and the Catholic University Andrés Bello was rejected by the CNE. One of the proposed methods by these institutions was comparing census data with the electoral registry. They nevertheless ran their audit in parallel and the representative of the three institutions José Miguel Bernardo concluded "In practice do not favor the government and their distribution is uniform." A second mathematician involved in the audit Raúl Jimenez concluded "One must be responsible. The electoral registry is a disaster and the CNE has done nothing to improve it, but there is nothing to indicate a political intention in the anomalies."

The CNE performed the third audit with the aid of seven other public universities and with the Carter Center and two senators from the Belgian parliament observing the audit. The senators were Jacinta de Roeck, from the SPA/Spirit party, and Sfia Bouarfa, from the French speaking Socialist Party.

In June 2006, a privately funded preliminary study by Genaro Mosquera, a statistics professor at the Central University and member of the political party Democratic Action, claimed that in the last three years the registry grew 27% compare to a population growth of only 7.3% during those years and also a much larger growth than the regular increasse of the registry of 12% every five years between 1948 and 2000. On of the flagship government Bolivarian Missions was mission identidad, where roughly 5 million citizens were awarded an ID card and the right to register and vote Also, by comparing the official population numbers provided with by the Office of National Statistics with the CNE registry, there seems to be more register voters of 45 years of age and over than actual population.

According to NGO Ojo Electoral (Electoral Eye) preliminary results of a comparison between the Electoral Registry and demographic projections of the National Institute of Statistics (INE) suggests that inconsistencies in the voter data base cannot modify the results of the election.

Other concerns

The opposition is denouncing unfair pressure by the government against those governmental workers who might not want to support the president. They released a video that showed energy minister and head of PDVSA, Rafael Ramírez, telling state oil workers to back President Hugo Chávez or to leave their jobs. He also said PDVSA is red "from top to bottom". He also said that PDVSA's "workers are with this revolution, and those who aren't should go somewhere else. Go to Miami". Opposition media outlets have been repeating the 14-minute video over and over again. President Chávez said he supported the PDVSA director and recommended him to make the same speech to oil workers 100 times a day. The CNE opened an investigation into Rafael Ramírez following the protests from the opposition.

See also

Hugo Chávez
45th President of Venezuela (1999–2013)
Early life and career
Presidency
Political events
Domestic policy
Foreign policy
Image

Notes

  1. Terra. Observadores de la UE tendrán plena libertad en las elecciones. (15 November 2006), Accessed 17 November 2006.Template:Es icon
  2. El Universal 15 Nov 2006 CNE y Unión Europea firman memorando de entendimiento para observación internacional Retrieved 15 Nov 2006 Template:Es icon
  3. Globovision Mercosur enviará misión de observación a elecciones de Venezuela Retrieved 27 November 2006 Template:Es icon
  4. El Universal 23 Nov 2006 OEA se compromete a señalar "cualquier anomalía" que detecte en el proceso electoral Retrieved 23 Nov 2006Template:Es icon
  5. Unión Radio. Campaña de Chávez estará basada en la defensa de la soberanía. (21 August 2006) Retrieved 21 August 2006. Template:Es icon
  6. Barbour, Scott. Venezuela's Chavez launches campaign for re-election. Associated Press (12 August 2006).
  7. ^ Chávez: "10 million vote goal is hard to attain". El Universal (18 August 2006).
  8. Government of Venezuela. Chávez anuncia que convocará su referéndum revocatorio de mandato. (1 September 2006) Retrieved 2 September 2006. Template:Es icon
  9. Rosales's candidacy formally announced. El Universal (9 August 2006).
  10. El Nacional 59% de los venezolanos reprueban plan Mi NegraRetrieved 2 Jun 2006 Template:Es icon
  11. Kraul, Chris. Chavez's Foes Cancel Primary, Line Up Behind One Candidate. Los Angeles Times (9 August 2006).
  12. Sanchez, Fabiola. Rosales opposition choice to face Chavez. Associated Press (10 August 2006).
  13. El Universal (El Universal 29 Oct 2006)[http://www.eud.com/2006/10/29/pol_art_50150.shtml Caravana del oficialismo en Caracas] Retrieved 11 Nov 2006 Template:Es icon "y el slogan de los diez millones de votos."
  14. ^ "Comando Miranda juramentado como frente anti-imperialista". Venezolana de Televisión-Ministerio de Comunicación e Información (17 August 2006). Template:Es icon
  15. El Tiempo. El presidente Hugo Chávez es ahora amoroso y azul. (12 October 2006). Accessed 29 October 2006. Template:Es icon
  16. The Guardian. The new-look Chávez: lover, people's poet, electioneer.(18 October 2006). Accessed 29 October 2006.
  17. Terra. El 76,7 por ciento de los venezolanos aprueba el 'mensaje de amor' de Hugo Chávez. (22 October 2006). Accessed 29 October 2006 Template:Es icon
  18. Atrévete con Manual Rosales. Accessed 25 August 2006.
  19. Oppenheimer, Andres. Opposition candidate takes distance from 'empire'. Miami Herald (20 August 2006).
  20. ^ Poder Electoral admitió postulaciones de siete candidatos presidenciales. El Universal (19 August 2006). Template:Es icon
  21. ^ Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias. La revolución inscribió a Chávez como su candidato. (12 August 2006). Accessed 12 August 2006. Template:Es icon
  22. ^ CNE. CNE recibio postulaciones en respaldo a candidatura de Manuel Rosales. (20 August 2006). Accessed 20 August 2006. Template:Es icon
  23. El Universal Comando por la resistencia da apoyo a Rosales y llama a votar el 3D (09 Nov 2006) Retrieved 11 Nov 2006 Template:Es icon
  24. Convergencia: Un compromiso de solidaridad. "Las autoridades convergentes tomaron la decisión de apoyar la candidatura unitaria del gobernador Manuel Rosales con la tarjeta propia de Convergencia." Retrieved 2 September 2006.
  25. Copei joins Rosales' campaign team. El Universal (21 August 2006).
  26. El-Universal Piedra party votes Rosales Retrieved 23 Nov 2006
  27. Roberto Smith steps down on behalf of Rosales. El Universal (24 August 2006).
  28. Globovisión El presidente de Acción Democrática declaró que no se cambiará la línea abstencionista. (17 August 2006) Retrieved 20 August 2006 Template:Es icon
  29. Diaz, Sara (El Universal 05 Nov 2006) La última palabra en las elecciones la tienen los indecisos Retrieved 25 Nov 2006 Template:Es icon "Keller afirma que fue mal interpretado cuando explicó que el tamaño del mercado de Chávez es de 52% mientras que el de Rosales es de 48%: "No me refería a la intención de voto sino a la segmentación política"
  30. El Universal Sondeos reflejan que mercados foráneos dan por sentado triunfo de Chávez Retrieved 21 Nov 2006 Template:Es icon
  31. Heading for presidential elections. El Universal (25 August 2006).
  32. Terra Dimite opositor que figuraba en encuestas tras Rosales y Chávez Retrieved 15 Nov 2006Template:Es icon
  33. ^ Súmate announced primaries for August 13th. El Universal (7 July 2006).
  34. Teodoro Petkoff refuses to run in primaries. El Universal (7 July 2006).
  35. Froilán Barrios condenó expresiones de Petkoff. El Universal (7 July 2006). Template:Es icon
  36. Súmate: there will be no primary elections. El Universal (8 August 2006).
  37. Chavez vows to beat the "devil" Retrieved 27 November 2006
  38. Bloomberg. Mass Venezuela opposition rally (8 October 2006). Accessed 02 November 2006.
  39. Associated Press Anti-Chavez protesters march en masse in Caracas Retrieved 27 Nov 2006
  40. Auditoria internacional del Registro Electoral Retrieved 5 Nov 2006 Template:Es icon
  41. ^ Pereira, Javier. "Detectaron inconsistencias demográficas entre los votantes mayores de 45 años". El Nacional (25 June 2006) p. A-2. Template:Es icon
  42. ^ Willpert, Gregory (Venezuela Analysis 22 July 2006) Preliminary Results of Venezuela’s Voter Registry Audit Show No Intent for Fraud Retrieved 5 Nov 2006
  43. http://sfiabouarfa.typepad.com/mon_weblog/2006/08/mission_dobserv.html
  44. INFORME DEL COMITÉ EJECUTIVO NACIONAL (C.E.N.) AL COMITÉ DIRECTIVO NACIONAL (C.D.N.) 07 DE AGOSTO DE 2006. Globovisión (13 August 2006). Template:Es icon
  45. http://www.misionvenezuela.gov.ve/11Identidad/11Derechoexistir.htm Mission Identidad] Retrieved 11 Nov 2006 Template:Es icon"La Misión IDENTIDAD , uno de los más recientes beneficios sociales, posibilitó cedular a 5 millones 76 mil personas, de ellos más de 600 mil venezolanos e inmigrantes extranjeros con muchos años en el país obtuvieron por primera vez su cédula de identidad, primera condición para convertirse de excluidos en ciudadanos, con derecho a participar en procesos electorales, y a existir como personas."
  46. El Universal. Ojo electoral avala Registro Electoral para elección presidencial. (August 19, 2006) Retrieved August 24, 2006 Template:Es icon
  47. Storm over Venezuela oil speech BBC (Retrieved 6 Nov 2006)
  48. http://www.eluniversal.com/2006/11/07/pol_ava_07A801197.shtml

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