Venezuelans attend Sunday to the polls to renew the entire National Assembly (unicameral parliament) elections in transcendental for the future of the country, where polls anticipated unfavorable results for the ruling coalition. Should you get a win opposition related sectors to Chavez would lose the parliamentary hegemony for the first time since the government agreed in 1999.
Just over 19.5 million citizens are eligible to choose 167 deputies, of which 113 will come from nominal applications (single), 51 come from closed lists and the other 3 represent indigenous communities.
40,601 tables are enabled in 14,515 polling stations across the country that work between 6 and 18 (7.30 and 19.30 in Argentina), but must remain open if closing time there are people lining up to cast their vote. No residents may vote abroad.
Virtually all surveys of voting intentions published in recent months reflected a loose-of difference between 20 and 30 percentage points in favor of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), which brings together 28 opposition parties.
However, due to the current electoral system, the number of seats that achieves each party or coalition is not necessarily proportional to the number of votes obtained.
in the meantime, while the election by lists 24 common political jurisdictions -the remain 23 federated states and the District Capital, for the nominal election the country was divided into 87 circuits and indigenous deputies will be elected only those constituencies with the presence of indigenous communities.
in addition, the seats will be allocated by the D'Hondt system of proportional representation for the case of closed lists, and by a simple majority for nominal candidacies.
Moreover, while Caracas and Aragua, Carabobo, Lara, Miranda and Zulia states gather together 52% of registered citizens, however designate only 67 deputies (40.12%), added those who are chosen nominally and lists.
Indeed, in 2010-the National Assembly is completely renewed every five years the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), the coalition led by the Kingdom of Venezuela (PSUV) ruling Socialist Party, obtained 48.13% of the vote but won 98 deputies, equivalent to 59.39% of the then total 165 legislators.
thus retained the simple majority of parliament but lost the qualified majorities three-fifths and two-thirds needed to approve certain projects, although years later regained first, which allowed sanction several enabling legislation which authorizes the Executive to legislate by decree-for presidents Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro.
the morning will be the first electoral confrontation between Chavez and the opposition since the election he consecrated Maduro following the death of Chavez in April 2013, and finds both sectors in its greatest confrontation.
Since those elections they were deeply aggravated inflation and shortage of products, whose indicators were no longer published by the National Statistics Institute.
also occurred between February and June 2014 daily protests that left 43 dead and 873 wounded, according to official data, whereby a dialogue between government and opposition promoted by the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and the Catholic Church, which failed after four meetings leaders began.
After the government jailed about 80 opponents, including several party leaders such as Leopoldo Lopez, and elected officials by popular vote, as the mayors Antonio Ledezma and Daniel Ceballos, and debarred several opposition deputies candidates.
in this context, the campaigns for the elections tomorrow are characterized by a significant reduction actions and marches in the streets, especially in the MUD, which used more emphasis social networking sites to promote voting, which it is not mandatory in Venezuela.
Perhaps it decreased the possibility that episodes of violence were recorded, although in recent weeks the opposition leader Luis Diaz was gunned down during a campaign stop in the state of Guarico and a street march in Caracas was attacked, also with guns, for motorcyclists identified with the government.
the government said the killing of Diaz was due to a grudge match between factions of a union and attack in Caracas was promoted by the chief of police of the municipality Sucre, about who issued an arrest warrant.
Maduro, who admitted that tomorrow will be the most difficult choices for Chavez said on several occasions if the opposition wins, "the revolution would go on to another stage" and he "throw to the streets with the people" to "govern civic-military union."
Meanwhile, Defense Minister , General Vladimir Padrino, reported that 188,000 troops were deployed to guard the electoral process
Source: National electoral Council. El Mundo (Venezuela); agency DPA; Telam file.