Voters in the home state of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez elected an opposition candidate for governor on Sunday in a special election called after that faction’s candidate in the November elections was retroactively disqualified as he led the vote.
Sergio Garrido, the opposition candidate, defeated former Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, in whose campaign senior officials of the ruling party participated in a broad attempt to retain control of this stronghold of Chavismo. The candidates campaigned for approximately five weeks after the Supreme Court of Justice disqualified opposition candidate Freddy Superlano, in response to which special elections were scheduled.
“This people of Barinas accepted the challenge democratically and today we are able to be the iconic state of all Venezuela”, declared Garrido. “Today the people of Barinas demonstrated that in unity and with the strength of all of you, they achieved it, they managed to overcome the obstacles, we succeeded overcome adversity ”.
Electoral authorities did not immediately release the vote count, but Arreaza acknowledged his defeat on social media.
“The information we receive from our PSUV structures indicates that, although we increased the vote, we have not achieved the objective,” he tweeted, referring to the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. “I warmly thank our heroic militancy. We will continue to protect the Barinese people from all spaces.”
Garrido, a local leader unknown in most of the country, asked his supporters to be patient as the electoral authorities officially announce the outcome.
Another candidate who participated was Claudio Fermín, an opposition dissident. But for the first time in more than two decades, no member of the Chávez family appeared on the ballot in this northwestern state of the country.
The disqualification of Superlano raised more doubts about the impartiality of Venezuela’s electoral system, after the first elections in years in which most of the parties participated.
Voters remained interested in the importance of these elections.
“I am very excited to participate again to be able to get out of this problem that arose on November 21,” said Luisa Contreras, 70, before entering a polling place.
Superlano was disqualified on the 29th of that month when he surpassed by less than one percentage point the current governor, Argenis Chávez, one of Hugo Chávez’s brothers. The Supreme Court, one of many government bodies considered loyal to the government of President Nicolás Maduro, ignored a presidential pardon that had allowed Superlano and other opponents to run.
Barinas has long been a stronghold of Chavismo. Argenis Chávez, Adán Chávez – another brother of Hugo Chávez – and their father, Hugo de los Reyes Chávez, have served as governor in various terms since 1998.
But the appeal of the late president, founder of the socialist movement that rules Venezuela, proved weak on November 21. Some residents later said that many people in Barinas are angered by severe gasoline shortages, lack of basic services such as gas, water and electricity, poor health care services, and hunger due to food shortages.
Argenis Chávez resigned as governor after Superlano’s disqualification and did not participate in the special elections. So the ruling party chose Arreaza as its candidate.
In addition to Superlano, his wife, chosen as his successor, was disqualified, as was the person who replaced her.
Throughout the state it was possible to see propaganda promoting the candidacy of Arreaza, and to a lesser degree that of Fermín. But Garrido hardly appeared in advertisements.
Votes for the ruling party have been declining since 2017 across the country. About 6.5 million people voted for pro-government candidates during the regional elections that year. On November 21, that number dropped to about 3.7 million.
On Sunday before dawn, government leaders and supporters of the ruling party held a demonstration in which they chanted: “Chávez lives, and in Barinas, the homeland continues!”
“These elections are seen to be different, it seems that they were presidential elections. The people are happy with the candidate they sent here, “said elector José López, 56, who had lined up since the early hours of the morning outside a voting center.
The November regional elections were monitored by more than 130 observers from the European Union, the United Nations and the Carter Center.
According to a preliminary report by EU observers, the regional contests in Venezuela were held in better conditions than in previous processes in recent years, but they continued to be affected by “structural deficiencies”, such as the disqualification of opponents of the opposition.
The EU delegation has not made any statement on the situation in Barinas, but the Carter Center in a report condemned the intervention of the highest court.
“There was also a general atmosphere of political repression and more than 250 people are still being held as political prisoners,” the center declared. “The recent decision of the court to suspend the tabulation of votes for the governor of Barinas is another example of its interference in the electoral process.”
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García Cano reported from Mexico City.
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