Government of Venezuela wins wide victory in parliamentary and regional elections

The government of Nicolás Maduro consolidated on Sunday (25) a forceful victory in Venezuela’s parliamentary and regional elections, in a journey marked by the boycott of radicalized opposition sectors. With 93% of the ballot boxes, the Great Patriotic Polo (GPP), a coalition led by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), won 23 of the 24 state governments and obtained 82.6% of the valid votes for the National Assembly, according to data released by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

The alliance led by the PSUV won 4,553,484 votes out of a total of 5,507,324 votes issued, guaranteeing 40 of the 50 seats in dispute, CNE President Elvis Amoroso said during a press conference in Caracas. This Sunday, the Venezuelan people went to the polls to elect the 285 deputies to Parliament, 24 governors and 260 regional legislators.

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Chavismo expands institutional presence

Before the elections, the PSUV and its coalition already ruled 19 of the 23 states of the country and had more than 90% of the chairs in Parliament, demonstrating that candidates who dispute have a chance to hegemonize votes in some areas of the country. With this Sunday’s results, it further expanded its institutional presence. In addition to the 23 states overdue, the government coalition also won the majority of the National Assembly seats. Only in the state of Cojedes the opposition maintained a relevant post, with the reelection of Alberto Galindez, from the Christian Democratic Party Copei, with 55.2% of the votes.

President Nicolás Maduro celebrated the results as proof that Chavismo is “more current and strong than ever.” Jorge Rodríguez, current president of Parliament, was reelected deputy, as well as other important names of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Divided and radicalized opposition

The election was appointed 569 positions, including deputies, governors, mayors and regional legislators. Despite the magnitude of the election, the journey was marked by habitual abstention in regional elections. The CNE reported that 42.63% of voters attended the polls, therefore, with 57.37% of abstention, which reveals an increase in 12% increase over the previous regional election. With over 5.5 million Venezuelans exercising his right to vote, Amoroso described the day as “hard” but successful to the Venezuelan electoral system.

Opposing leaders, such as María Corina Machado, try to use abstention data to delegitimize the electoral process. She ignores that the Electoral Justice itself announces an abstention, which could have been disputed by the opposition. The Democratic Alliance, the main opposition coalition, obtained 344,422 votes (6.25%), followed by the Unique UNTC Alliance with 285,501 votes (5.18%) and the Poor Force Alliance with 141,566 votes (2.57%). The rest of the votes, including null banknotes and other smaller options, totaled 182,351 votes, equivalent to 3.31 percent of the total

Much of the opposition, gathered on the Democratic Unit Platform (PUD), chose not to participate in the elections on the grounds of protest for Maduro’s reelection in 2024. Instead of disputing the electoral process and expanding its base, opposition always claims some reason to boycott it. Opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia currently lives in Spain.

On the other hand, a minority wing of the opposition, led by names such as Henrique Capriles, Juan Recheens and Manuel Rosales, decided to dispute the election, defending participation as a form of institutional resistance. This division generated the break between opposing groups and resulted in the expulsion of the parties un Nuevo Tiempo and moved by Venezuela of the majority coalition.

Tension climate and arrests during the electoral process

The electoral process was preceded by allegations of sabotage plans and tensions between government and opposition. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello warned that opposition sectors planned attacks on embassies and kidnappings, which resulted in the arrest of about 70 people, including former Deputy Juan Pablo Guanipa, ally of María Corina Machado. The elections occurred under the accompaniment of more than 300 observers from 64 countries, perhaps the most watched in the world.

For the first time, Venezuelan voters were called to vote for representatives to the territory of Esequibo, a region of 160,000 km² in dispute with Guyana. A governor and 15 legislators (eight national and seven regional) were elected for what the government considers a new Venezuelan state. The International Court of Justice has asked Venezuela to refrain from holding elections in the area. The CNE argued that the measure fulfills the popular mandate expressed in a referendum held in December 2023.

Preliminary results mark a new victory for the political project started by Hugo Chavez and continued by Nicolás Maduro, reinforcing government management in a context of international economic and diplomatic challenges promoted mainly from Washington.

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