{"id":6067,"date":"2017-11-14T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thediplomaticenvoy.com\/?p=6067"},"modified":"2017-11-14T23:38:39","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T04:38:39","slug":"venezuelan-opposition-disputes-election-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2017\/11\/14\/venezuelan-opposition-disputes-election-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelan Opposition Disputes Election Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor Cain
\nStaff Writer<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s opposition party, Mesa de la Unidad Democratica and its supporters refused to accept the results of the October 15 regional elections. The ruling Socialist Party won 17 of the 23 governorships, resulting in opposition-led protests across the country despite the ruling party losing three seats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three of Venezuela’s opposition parties: Justice First, Popular Will and Democratic Action, announced on Monday they will boycott municipal elections in December reports<\/span> Al Jazeera<\/span><\/a>. This is to protest an \u00a0election system they say is biased, and instead will focus on demanding reforms to the election board to prepare for next year’s presidential poll.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Nicolas Maduro said the elections were \u201ca success for Venezuela and the revolutionary democracy, for the social democracy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerardo Blyde, the campaign head for the opposition coalition called for protests and a complete electoral audit of all 23 districts on October 16. Maduro approved the audit with confidence in his party, <\/span>Al Jazeera<\/span><\/a> reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

MUD accused the National Electoral Council of producing confusing ballots and strategically moving polling places to aid ruling party candidates, <\/span>CNN<\/span><\/a> reports. Some voters were uncertain about the location of their polling stations and waited in long lines to vote. The government relocated 200 polling stations for security reasons, Al Jazeera reports, but the opposing party claims the relocations unfavorably occurred in their regional strongholds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they don\u2019t want my vote\u201d one voter told CNN after her polling location changed, \u201cbut we have to vote. We have to elect\u2026our governors\u201d she stated. This voter is one of many who saw firsthand the difficulties of voting for this election. Many others also share that feeling of necessity when it comes to voting for their governors among other officials. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The US Department of State condemned the Council for \u201cthe fairness of the electoral process,\u201d and the Council criticized the statement, calling it an \u201caggression perpetrated against our sovereignty\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maduro responded to fraud accusations on October 17, claiming Venezuela\u2019s electoral process is \u201cthe most audited and secure in the world\u2026nobody can commit fraud\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the district of Zulia, opposition candidate, Juan Pablo Guanipa, won the race, <\/span>The Washington Post<\/span><\/a> reports, but the constitutional assembly blocked him from being sworn in. Guanipa did not comply with Maduro\u2019s order for governor-elects to take the oath in front of the ruling party-backed constitutional assembly. MUD supported Guanipa\u2019s decision not to attend the ceremony, but the four other governor-elects from the \u00a0party attended the ceremony. The new date for Zulia\u2019s gubernatorial elections has not been determined.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pro-government constitutional assembly was created in July, <\/span>The Washington Post<\/span><\/a> reports, and has been called a fraudulent institution by members of the international community. For instance, American President, Donald Trump, called Venezuela a dictatorship and added it to the travel ban, specifically prohibiting governmental leaders and their families from traveling to the United States. This travel ban is only active for seven other countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

While is to be seen if the opposition parties\u2019 attempts to bring about reforms to the electoral board will succeed, there is a lot of pressure on Maduro to change the process in some way.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MUD accused the National Electoral Council of producing confusing ballots and strategically moving polling places to aid ruling party candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3787,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1186,1097,382,384],"tags":[404,477,1187],"class_list":["post-6067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-november-2017","category-1097","category-international-news","category-americas","tag-elections","tag-venezuela","tag-fraud"],"yoast_head":"\nVenezuelan Opposition Disputes Election Results - The Diplomatic Envoy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2017\/11\/14\/venezuelan-opposition-disputes-election-results\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Venezuelan Opposition Disputes Election Results - 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