After legislative elections marked by strong abstentions, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro took control of parliament on Monday, the last institution that was still beyond his power. Abstention from the ballot reached 69%, with the call of the main opposition parties to “stay at home” and boycott the elections having been overwhelmingly followed.
The coalition supporting the president, the Great Patriotic Pole, obtained 67.7% of the votes out of 82.35% of the ballots counted, announced the president of the National Electoral Council, Indira Alfonzo. The fraction of the opposition which took part in the vote obtained 18% of the vote, according to the president of the CNE, who did not specify the distribution of the 277 seats submitted to the vote of the 20 million registered.
“Happy dawn with the scent of victory. We have a new National Assembly, we have won a huge victory, ”said Nicolás Maduro, president since 2013.
For opposition leader Juan Guaido, self-proclaimed interim president and supported by more than 50 countries, “the majority rejection of the Venezuelan people has been evident […] Venezuela has turned its back on Maduro and his fraud ”. During the 2015 legislative elections, when the opposition ended 15 years of Chavist hegemony in parliament, the turnout was 71% (66.45% in 2010).
Guaido launches a popular consultation
On Monday, Juan Guaido launched a popular consultation that runs until Saturday, and in which he calls for the support of the population for the extension of his mandate as speaker of parliament beyond its expiration date, January 5, in order to be able to organize “free, fair and transparent elections”. By asking Venezuelans if they “reject” the elections organized on Sunday by the government, he thus defends the idea that, if there is no “legitimate election”, the results of the previous vote remain in force.
The United States – which indicted Maduro for drug trafficking – reacted to the result of the vote by announcing that it will “continue to recognize” Guaido as “interim president”, according to the head of their diplomacy Mike Pompeo. “The international community cannot let Maduro, who is in power illegitimately after stealing the 2018 election, take advantage of a second stolen election,” the Secretary of State warned in a statement, calling these legislative elections. of “masquerade”.
For its part, the European Union does not recognize the results of the legislative elections on Sunday because it does not consider the electoral process credible. “The lack of respect for political pluralism, the disqualification and prosecution of opposition leaders do not allow the EU to recognize this electoral process as credible, inclusive or transparent, and its results as representative of the will of the Venezuelan people “, Declared Monday the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, after a meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of the EU in Brussels. The EU position was approved “unanimously” by ministers, he said.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr
