The voters of the State of the Barinas, governed since twenty years by a member of the former president’s family, preferred a local unrecognized elected to the power candidate.
Chavism lost the barinas. In this state of the west of Venezuela, hometown and family fief of the late Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), voters returned to the polls, Sunday, January 9 to elect their governor, the Supreme Court annulled the election scheduled 21 November 2021 In this constituency. And this time, the opposition candidate, Sergio Garrido, 54, won the hands with 55.36% of the votes. The candidate of the Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Jorge Arreaza, 48, has arrived in second place with 41.27%.
This local opposition victory does not change the electoral map, the PSUV, in power, having won 19 of the 23 states in June, inflicting a severe defeat to a very divided opposition. But it has symbolic value. For twenty years, the state of the Barinas had been ruled by a member of the family of Hugo Chavez, his father first, his two brothers then.
Some people want to believe that Mr. Garrido’s victory is likely to change the political deal at the national level. “Barinas, cradle and falls from capism”, throws an opponent on Twitter. “It may not be the beginning of the end, considers, more cautious, Cesar Batiz, director of the El Pitazo media. But it is indeed allowed to hope that the symbolic weight of this victory relaunches the unit of L opposition and causes fractures within the power in place. “
The vote took place without major incident
The victory in the Barinas gives reason to the moderate wing of the opposition which, after several years of electoral boycott, had agreed to participate in the ballot of November 21, 2021 and defends the option of a democratic transition. The radical wing continues to advocate for abstention, considering that the electoral participation makes the game of power.
Some 600,000 voters were called to vote. The ballot took place without major incident. At the beginning of the afternoon, both sides were looking forward to the increase in the number of voters compared to the previous ballot. Then, a little bit before 10 pm, Jorge Arreaza recognized his defeat on Twitter. “The information we receive structures of the PSUV indicate that even if we have progressed in number of votes, we have not achieved our goal.” His defeat has created the surprise: the power had not lonely on the means to ensure his victory.
In November, the court had canceled the ballot while the opposition candidate Freddy Superlano led with 37.6% of the votes, compared to 37.21% for Argenis Chavez, the governor in place which finally gave up represent. Opponents obviously shouted in fraud and denounced, once again, the lack of independence of the electoral authorities and judges. As if to give them reason, the National Electoral Council then declared ineligible Freddy Superlano, then his wife who had been president to replace him. The opposition has no other choice, then, to designate as a candidate for the January 9 vote a local elected representative, very little known voters.
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