CARACAS, (venezuelanalysis.com) – Jorge Rodríguez, head of president Nicolás Maduro’s reelection effort, spoke out against an alleged made-in-Miami plot by Venezuela’s far-right opposition to claim electoral fraud following Sunday’s presidential vote.
According to Rodríguez, who also serves as head of the country’s National Assembly, the opposition intends to run an independent vote count from an operations center in Miami, Florida.
“It is not from the National Electoral Council (CNE), it is not even located in any city in Venezuela, but instead in Miami,” said Rodríguez in a press conference Monday.
Pointing to election polls favoring the US-backed opposition, leaders from Venezuela’s right-wing parties have been on a media tour alleging that their victory is virtually guaranteed and that only “fraud” could allow Maduro to be re-elected; a position that has been uncritically echoed in most media outlets.
Polling in Venezuela is considered unreliable, with pollsters historically showing a measurable pro-opposition bias.. Ahead of this election, opinion pollsters without a track record in past contests have offered wildly varying results, with either Maduro or his main rival, Edmundo González, holding sizable leads.
A leaked report from pro-opposition pollster Datanálisis reportedly predicted a narrow Maduro victory on July 28.
Although the opposition has consistently cried fraud following losses in electoral contests, Venezuela has a robust electoral system with a series of safeguards to prevent ballot-box stuffing or repeat voters. In addition, immediately after polls close, 54 percent of voting machines are chosen at random in order to verify that paper backup tallies match the electronic count.
In recent comments to the media, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged Maduro to respect the results of the election.
“Maduro knows that the only chance for Venezuela to return to normality is to have an electoral process that is respected by everyone,” said Lula on Monday.
After a brief respite, the US reimposed unilateral coercive measures on Venezuela that severely limit the country’s ability to sell oil in international markets and secure foreign investment. Despite the setback, the Venezuelan economy has shown positive developments in recent years, with inflation reaching decade-lows, though wages remain stagnant.
Although the campaign has largely been peaceful and without major incidents, Maduro has continuously warned that the opposition could engage in violence or acts of sabotage ahead of Sunday’s vote.
In the western state of Falcón, Governor Victor Clark published images to denounce “vandalism and sabotage” that destroyed breakers in a local electrical substation. On the other side of the country, in the state of Bolívar, officials denounced an alleged sabotage effort that saw cables for the Angostura Bridge intentionally cut.
With the vote only days away, both the government and opposition camps have been continuously touring the country.
Maduro’s Socialist-led coalition, the Great Patriotic Pole, has considerable experience organizing and mobilizing supporters. The president’s reelection campaign has focused on a closer connection to the population, emphasizing mass demonstrations and running on the slogan “Hope is in the Streets”.
Meanwhile, Maduro’s 74-year-old rival has mostly conducted interviews from his Caracas apartment, rarely venturing out to the campaign trail. Instead the US-backed opposition has made far-right politician María Corina Machado the face of the campaign. Machado is not on the ballot after her political disqualification was upheld by the Venezuelan Supreme Court in January, with González largely viewed as her stand-in candidate.
The pair recently appeared together at a “prayer gathering” in eastern Caracas, considered a bastion of support for the opposition. Although the opposition has mobilized sizable demonstrations in support of its candidacy, Sunday’s gathering showed a very modest turnout.
With an unpredictable result, Sunday’s presidential election may ultimately boil down to which political force has a more efficient vote-getting machine. The Great Patriotic Pole showed its prowess in a rehearsal vote held earlier this month. In contrast, the US-backed opposition alliance did not emphasize participation in the electoral dry-run.
