United Socialist Party of Venezuela Gets Ready to Choose Candidates for Regional Elections
- 29 May 2008
Caracas, May 23, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The United Socialist
Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is set to organize a 300,000 strong network
of “permanent mobilization” to carry out political activity “including
the defense of Venezuelan sovereignty,” according to Darío Vivas, head
of the PSUV’s Events and Mobilization Commission, which will be
responsible for coordinating the network.
“We will be ready to mobilize in the face of any circumstance,” Vivas
declared Thursday in a statement to the press. The first mission of the
network will be to campaign for the regional elections set for November
23. But the group will also serve as a “rapid response” network in the
face of importance incidents such as possible secession movements in
Zulia, Vivas said.
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| Dario Vivas, Chair of the PSUV's Events and Mobilization Commission (Aporrea) |
Following the internal elections of candidates on June 1, the party
will carry out “mobilization drills” throughout the whole country, with
a focus on the states and municipalities in the border region he said.
On Tuesday, PSUV members in Caracas warned that it would be a big
challenge to combat abstention both within the PSUV internal elections
and in the upcoming regional elections.
For many poor Venezuelans the decision of whether to participate in
elections or not often comes down to whether they have access to
transport to and from the polling booths.
However, Vivas assured, “on the day of the internal elections, a plan
of organized mobilization” would be implemented to facilitate transport
of PSUV members to vote. The transport would be “egalitarian” so as not
to favor any one pre-candidate in particular he stressed, although in
contrast he said he did not see any problem if pre-candidates
themselves wanted to organize transportation for people.
Vivas also ruled out the use of fingerprint machines, which are
commonly used in Venezuelan elections to prevent multiple voting, for
the party’s internal elections.
“There’s no reason to use them, we are among revolutionaries that trust
each other…the pre-candidates have sworn to respect the established
rules,” he argued.
The PSUV national executive has also withdrawn a ban on campaigning in
the media during the party’s internal elections. Although political
advertising remains prohibited, pre-candidates are allowed to
participate in talk shows and publish opinion pieces. Candidates are
also prohibited from using the image of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez in their campaigns and from attacking each other publicly
throughout the campaign.
However, controversy erupted on Wednesday evening when state owned
television station’s current affairs program, Contra Golpe, hosted by
journalist Vanessa Davies, was set to interview the six pre-candidates
for governor of Lara: Henri Falcón, Julio Chávez, Linda Amaro, Pedro
Alastre, Luis Contreras and Iván Lugo.
As the pre-candidates began to arrive, reports surfaced that Henri
Falcón would not attend and that Julio Chávez, (the immensely popular
mayor of Pedro Leon Torres Municipality in the state of Lara, who has
headed a process democratize the entire governance system of his
municipality), was being pressured to stand down by some members of the
PSUV national leadership in favor of Falcón.
As Mayor Chávez arrived, he was met with cheers and applause and chants
of, “If the people don’t stand firm, the Right will screw it up.”
Chaos ensued and Alastre, Contreras, and Lugo, the regional electoral
coordinator of the PSUV, left without explanation forcing the program
to be suspended.
Conflict also arose in the state of Bolivar where José Gregorio Beria, a PSUV member and pre-candidate for Mayor of Caroní, argued that the regional authorities of the organization were favoring some pre-candidates over others. An example of this he said was that the majority of the pre-candidates were not invited to a presentation of the pre-candidates organized by the regional vice-president Yelitze Santaella.
The event was converted into political proselytising for the current governor of the state, Francisco Rangel Gómez, a situation which is prohibited in the regulations, Beria said.
“There exists an evident advantage on the part of some candidates and the worst is that this attitude appears to count with the support of the regional authorities,” he asserted.
Beria also denounced that the method of candidate selection chosen by the party whereby if no single candidate achieves 50% plus 1 or 15% higher than the next candidate, the national executive in consultation with President Chavez, can select the candidate from the top three.
This does not guarantee the will of the grassroots as, ultimately, candidates can be designated by the national authorities he said.
Beria argued that Rangel Gómez, who is running again for governor, and Clemente Scotto, as pre-candidate for Mayor of Caroní, should withdraw their candidacies since they are rejected by the majority of people who don’t approve of their management.
Rangel Gómez became widely discredited earlier this year when he ordered the National Guard to break up a protest of striking workers from the SIDOR steel plant, which was subsequently nationalized by President Chavez.
“We have to be clear that if Rangel Gómez and Scotto are designated as PSUV candidates, we will lose the regional elections, because the people simply will not vote for them,” Beria continued, calling on the regional authorities of the party to avoid an “electoral debacle.”
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