Presidential election in Venezuela 2013

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Nicolás Maduro

The 2013 presidential election in Venezuela became necessary because the incumbent President Hugo Chávez died on March 5, 2013. The election took place on April 14th. According to the electoral authority, Nicolás Maduro won the election with 50.66 percent of the vote against Henrique Capriles , who received 49.06%.

background

Henrique Capriles

On October 7, 2012, a rotating presidential election took place in Venezuela , which President Chávez clearly won against the unity candidate of the opposition Henrique Capriles . Chávez had cancer and had undergone multiple surgeries and follow-up treatments in Cuba since 2011 . During the election campaign, Chavez declared himself completely healed. In December 2012, Chavez had to go to Cuba again and undergo another cancer operation. He previously appointed Nicolás Maduro as his vice-president and desired successor. After Chávez was unable to attend his swearing-in ceremony for the new term of office on January 10, 2013 , the opposition demanded immediate elections within 30 days, as the constitution stipulates if the president is incapable of office. Venezuela's Supreme Court, mostly made up of Chavez-friendly judges, ruled that the president was still in office and that the oath of office was therefore only a formality that could take place at some point in the future.

An extraordinary election was due within 30 days of Chavez's death on March 5. Since this date fell on the Easter weekend, when many Venezuelans are traveling, the government set the election date for April 14, which the opposition also agreed to.

Candidates

Nicolás Maduro of the PSUV , who is also supported by the Communist Party , was considered the favorite even before the election. The most promising opponent is Henrique Capriles of the Primero Justicia , who was nominated by the opposition alliance Mesa de la Unidad Democrática . Capriles was already a candidate in the last election. Other candidates are Reina Sequera from the Labor Party , María Bolívar from the United Democratic Party for Peace and Freedom , Eusebio Méndez from the 'New Vision for My Country', Fredy Tabarquino from the 'Organized Youth for Venezuela' and Julio Mora from the 'Democratic Party Unity Party '.

Election campaign

The publicly visible election campaign was limited to the two favorites, the interim president and desired successor of Chávez's predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and Hugo Chávez's challenger in the previous regular presidential elections.

Maduro, who say the observer had a lack of charisma , tried above all to emphasize the continuity with the predecessor, which was extremely popular with the poorer sections of the population. Chavez was venerated as a saint in the state media and his ghost later appeared to Maduro in the form of a little bird. At the same time, the Chavistas' election campaign was marked by numerous conspiracy theories . Shortly after Chavez's death, two US military attachés were expelled for alleged espionage . The former Chavez friend and advisor Heinz Dieterich referred to this as "campaign skirmish". It was later claimed that the United States was forging a murder plot against challenger Capriles, which the Chavistas would then blame. Later it was Maduro himself who "foreign mercenaries" supposedly wanted to murder. Attacks on Venezuela's power grid are also planned to provoke power outages and paralyze the country. The opposition was brought closer to the Nazis .

Challenger Capriles, on the other hand, tried to argue with factual issues. Among other things, he drew attention to Venezuela's desperate economic situation, the further increased dependence on oil exports and promised to want to abolish the expensive subsidies for other countries, such as Cuba, in the medium term.

Die Zeit takes the view that the opposition and the media have been severely intimidated and hindered.

Result

Majorities by federal state :
> 50–60% for Maduro > 60% for Maduro > 50–60% for Capriles > 60% for Capriles





Bottom line according to the Venezuelan electoral authority CNE:

candidate Alliance / party be right %
Nicolás Maduro Gran Polo Patriótico (GPP) 7,575,704 50.78
Henrique Capriles Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) 7,302,648 48.95
Eusebio Mendez Nueva Visión para mi País (NUVIPA) 19,475 0.13
María Bolívar Partido Democrático Unido por la Paz y la Libertad (PDUPL) 13,278 0.08
Reina Sequera Poder Laboral 4,229 0.02
Julio Mora Unidad Democrática (UDEMO) 1.928 0.01

aftermath

The official result was not recognized by the surprisingly narrow loser Henrique Capriles. Few international election observers had been admitted. Numerous irregularities occurred during the election, which, due to the close gap between Maduro and Capriles, could have had an impact on who would have won the election in the end and would become the future president of Venezuela. Capriles called for the votes to be recounted. For example, there were violations of the secrecy of the elections in that the voting took place under observation, and there were also double votes and the election was influenced.

There were numerous demonstrations in the days after the election. According to the government, nine of its supporters were killed. There was no information available on the number of victims by opposition supporters. In addition, the incumbent government alleged that health centers where Cuban doctors worked were attacked and burned down. There was no evidence of this. According to reports from journalists and non-governmental organizations , the health centers mentioned are in perfect condition and the Cuban Vice Minister of Health also emphasized that no Cuban was harmed during the demonstrations and that they went about their normal work.

Although election winner Maduro had initially agreed to a re-counting of the votes, it was not clear whether the required re-counting of the votes would come about, nor how it should actually be carried out. Parliamentary President Diosdado Cabello refused to recount the votes. At the same time, he withdrew the right to speak in parliament from opposition MPs who were unwilling to recognize Maduro as president. In addition, he did not want to pay any diets to the relevant MPs until the Maduro presidency was recognized . The president of the electoral council, Tibisay Lucena, agreed to a review of the election results shortly afterwards, while her deputy said a few days later that there could be no review of the votes that would change the outcome of the election.

Capriles was later accused of being responsible for the violent rioting after the election, of calling for the overthrow of the government. The Minister of Justice said she had already prepared a cell for him. Parliament set up a committee of inquiry made up exclusively of Chavistas.

On April 25, the American Timothy Tracy, who had made documentaries about the conflict in Venezuela, was arrested at Caracas Airport . He was accused of funding and stirring up violent groups in Venezuela and of acting as an agent for foreign NGOs.

As expected, the Chavistas-dominated Supreme Court dismissed Capriles' lawsuits aimed at annulling the election as "inadmissible". At the same time, the opposition leader was fined the equivalent of around 1,300 euros for "'aggressive and disrespectful claims' that undermine trust in the country's institutions". The court also asked the public prosecutor to open an investigation against Capriles . Capriles' chief of staff Óscar López was arrested on the day of the verdict and his home was searched.

In a preliminary report, the Carter Center praised the almost forgery-proof voting system with electronic voting machines . However, criticism was expressed about the environment surrounding the elections. It was not ensured that every person entitled to vote could exercise his or her right to vote and that everyone can only vote once. In addition, the conditions in the election campaign were unfair from a financial point of view and with regard to access to the mass media . Because of the small difference in the election results, it is important to pay attention to these things.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. www.cne.gov.ve Consejo Nacional Electoral (homepage)
  2. spiegel.de April 15, 2013: Chávez's foster son Maduro wins presidential election
  3. Maduro and Capriles Register Candidacies as Venezuela Prepares for Presidential Elections Fresh
  4. Chávez confidante Maduro is a clear favorite
  5. http://www.cne.gov.ve/web/sala_prensa/noticia_detallada.php?id=3123
  6. Oliver Pohlisch: Hugo in Heaven , taz.de of March 5, 2013
  7. New ruler in Venezuela: "Maduro will be a weak president" , interview with Heinz Dieterich from March 12, 2013
  8. Conspiracy theories in the election campaign , Handelsblatt, April 10, 2013
  9. Venezuela's president describes the opposition as "heirs of Hitler" , APA in standard.at of March 31, 2013.
  10. Little Chávez , Deutsche Welle, April 11, 2013
  11. zeit.de: Chávez 'Crown Prince wants rule. - Nicolás Maduro promises Venezuelans to be the real Chavez heir. Thanks to a rabid apparatus of power, he will win the presidential election.
  12. http://resultados.cne.gob.ve/resultado_presidencial_2013/r/1/reg_000000.html
  13. ed. Hanna S. Kassab, Jonathan D. Rosen: The Obama Doctrine in the Americas - Security in the Americas in the Twenty-First Century, Lexington Books, 2016, ISBN 9781498524001 , p. 223
  14. Werner Marti: Venezuela's president orders arrest of American filmmaker , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 26, 2013
  15. Michaela Sivich: Adiós chavismo , Jungle World from April 25, 2013
  16. Venezuela's president orders arrest of American filmmaker , The Washington Post, April 26, 2013
  17. Leading opposition member arrested in Venezuela , Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 8, 2013
  18. http://www.dw.de/venezuelas-opposition-unterhaben-mit-wahlklage/a-17005409
  19. Carter Center Issues Report on Venezuela Election , Carter Center, July 3, 2013