Venezuelans Defy Leader, Boycott National Election

CARACAS, Venezuela — Just over a week ago, Venezuelans mostly stayed at home, refusing to support an attempted military takeover of their country. Sunday, Venezuelans mostly stayed at home, refusing to support a 34-year-old democratic political system they view as corrupt and ineffective.

With abstention rates reaching 80% in some parts of Caracas, a large proportion of the country’s 10.3 million eligible voters declined to take part in balloting for 22 state governors, 282 mayors and 2,116 municipal council seats.

Exit polls of those who did vote indicated that the opposition COPEI, a Social Christian party allied with the international Christian Democratic movement, had gained at the expense of Accion Democratica, the democratic socialist party of President Carlos Andres Perez.

One exit poll gave 11 governors to COPEI, eight to Accion Democratica and three to other parties. Similar COPEI gains were projected in other races.

Media and political experts had set a 55% turnout level as the standard for judging if the people had heeded calls that a high turnout was necessary to prove that the public supported “ballots over bullets.”

“The Venezuelan people will repudiate with their votes definitely and totally the coup attempt of Nov. 27,” Perez said as he voted Sunday.

Some politicians had hoped that not only would the failed Nov. 27 coup spark a large voter turnout, but that voters also would be energized by reforms made for this election.

It was the first time since Venezuela toppled a dictatorship in 1958 and installed a democratic system that the country has been able to vote directly for all its governors and mayors.

There also was an intense propaganda drive by big business sectors to get out the vote as a sign that Venezuela had rejected instability and would provide a safe and profitable climate for international investment.

Yet in spite of warm, dry weather, the fact that most businesses were closed and appeals by all leaders that the public show support for democracy, polling stations stood virtually empty through much of the day.

Not even a law that makes voting mandatory under threat of a fine and the loss of some civil privileges brought out the voters.

In and around Caracas, in working-class, wealthy and impoverished neighborhoods, voting stations stood nearly empty except for poll workers and armed National Guard and other military troops standing guard.

At times 20 minutes would pass without a voter showing up. The longest lines would count perhaps 15 or 20 people. It probably didn’t help that about 200,000 candidates ran for the various offices and that ballots were printed in tiny, hard-to-read letters.

“Compared to presidential and congressional elections, this is almost zero,” said Molina Rios, a poll watcher at a precinct in the El Bosque section of Caracas.

“If things continue this way,” said a diplomat four hours after the polls opened at 6 a.m., “this is a clear repudiation of the government and the state of politics.”

Still, said a former Venezuelan diplomat and leading constitutional lawyer, “this is not a repudiation of democracy. We want democracy. What it is is a rejection of the politicians and the particular system they have created. People want a change. That is what today means.”

Even people who did vote showed they agreed with their discontented fellow citizens and with the current political climate.

“I vote every time,” said Miguel Maresco, a 23-year-old Caracas lawyer. “It is essential for democracy to vote. But I know we have to have a change and I know people don’t want this government anymore.”

Although the attempted coup of Nov. 27 and a similar uprising earlier this year drew little popular support, public opinion surveys continue to indicate an overwhelming rejection of the country’s politics, at least as it is now being practiced.

Perez, for example, drew only a 9% approval rating in the week before November’s rebellion, while Congress drew even less support. A constant refrain in quick polls and interviews after the latest coup attempt showed similar levels of disenchantment.

“I didn’t vote,” said Marcela Iturbe, a middle-age woman who lives in the upper-class neighborhood of Chuao. “These people (politicians) have ruined Venezuela. I don’t want violence and certainly not a military government, but there has to be a change. If we vote, we are endorsing the system.”

That’s not a new feeling here. In a more restricted 1989 election, only 23% of the voters in Caracas turned out to vote. The national turnout that year was only about 35%.

“What you have here is a near-total rejection of politics as usual,” said the diplomat, asking that he not be identified.

Voters are sick of an inflation rate that will surpass 35% this year and of constant reports and investigations of corruption at such high levels that it has stained Perez.

Behind the malaise is the conviction that Venezuela, third-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, should be able to provide a higher standard of living and a more direct and responsive political system.

One irony of Sunday’s election and the resulting low turnout is that the vote was the first time in most cases that candidates were identified individually instead of being listed by party slates, one of the greatest past complaints by critics of the system here.

“I had thought that (direct candidate voting) was the answer to the political lassitude here,” the diplomat said, “but I guess the people are just so sick of the politics and the politicians that they just won’t participate.”