The 2010 parliamentary election in Venezuela took place on 26 September 2010 to elect the 165 deputies to the National Assembly. Venezuelan opposition parties, which had boycotted the previous election thus allowing the governing Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) to gain a two-thirds super majority, participated in the election through the Coalition for Democratic Unity (MUD). In 2007 the Fifth Republic Movement dissolved and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela was formed as the leading government party. Nationally, the popular vote was split equally between PSUV and MUD, but PSUV won a majority of the first-past-the-post seats and consequently retained a substantial majority in the Assembly, although falling short of both two-thirds and three-fifths super majority marks.Devereux, Chrlie and Corina Rodriguez Pons. Business Week, 27 September 2010. "Venezuela's Opposition Pushes Back Chavez in Vote".Constitution of Venezuela, article 203 (page 75) http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/venezuela/constitucion_ingles.pdf
Of the 165 deputies, 110 were constituency representatives elected on a first-past-the-post, the system in 87 electoral districts, 52 elected on a party list system (two or three deputies per state of Venezuela, depending on population), and 3 seats were reserved for indigenous peoples, with separate rules.
Additionally, 12 representatives were chosen for the Latin American Parliament.
There was initially a dispute between alliances that participated in the election as to which alliance received a plurality of votes.Dan Molinski, "Venezuela's Chavez Claims Popular-Vote Victory In Election", The Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100928-706902.html "Venezuelan leader claims 'victory'", Al-Jazeera, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/09/201092812726888590.html"Venezuelan opposition alliance claims it won 52 percent of popular vote", El Universal, http://www.eluniversal.com/2010/09/27/en_pol_esp_venezuelan-oppositio_27A4527293.shtml "Sobre representación perjudica a la oposición", El Universal, http://eluniversal.com/2010/09/27/v2010_ava_sobre-representacion_27A4527053.shtml Each coalition was allowed to invite 30 foreign officials to observe the elections.European Union, "Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the elections in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela", http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/cfsp/116787.pdfOrganization of American States, "OAS Officials are Special Guests to Election Day in Venezuela", http://www.oas.org/OASpage/press_releases/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-349/10
Background Electoral changes Elections for the National Assembly of Venezuela in the 2000 and the 2005 were conducted under a weak mixed member proportional system, with 60% elected in first-past-the-post electoral districts and the remainder by closed party list proportional representation.CNN, Venezuela (Presidential), accessed 27 September 2010 This was an adaptation of the system previously used for the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies,Donna Lee Van Cott (2005), From movements to parties in Latin America: the evolution of ethnic politics, Cambridge University Press. p29 which had been introduced in 1993, with a 50-50 balance between voting districts and party lists,Crisp, Brian F. and Rey, Juan Carlos (2003), "The Sources of Electoral Reform in Venezuela", in Shugart, Matthew Soberg, and Martin P. Wattenberg, Mixed-Member Electoral Systems - The Best of Both Worlds?, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. pp. 173–194(22) and deputies per state proportional to population, but with a minimum of three deputies per state.Crisp and Rey (2003:175)
For the 2010 election, the Ley Orgánica de Procesos Electorales (LOPE) (Basic law of electoral process) among other changes reduced the party list proportion to 30%. In addition, the law completely separated the district vote and the party list votes, creating a more parallel system. Previously, parties winning nominal district seats had had these subtracted from the total won under the proportional party list. Under the new law, in 2009, electoral districts were redefined in a way that has been accused of favouring the PSUV, particularly in giving more weight to votes in the countryside over those in the city.Romero, Simon. The New York Times, 26 September 2010. "Venezuelans Vote for Legislators".Latin American Herald Tribune, 27 September 2010, "In Venezuela, Opposition Wins Vote Total, but Chavez Still Dominates Parliament".
Electoral process As usual in Venezuela, the voting took place on a non-work day, and the sale of alcohol was banned starting the day prior to elections.
Four domestic NGOs registered 624 observers each. Unlike the election in 2005, major independent election observing organisations such as the Organization of American States, the European Union and the Carter Center were not invited to observe this election in a technical capacity. Guests from those bodies allowed to observe the final days of the election were not given the technical observation role they had been given in the past. Instead, each alliance participating in the election was permitted to bring "up to 30 witnesses from abroad."Miami Herald, 21 September 2010, "Election observers coming to Venezuela -- what will they see?"Center for Strategic and International Studies, "PSUV Seeks to Maintain a Majority in Venezuela's Upcoming Legislative Elections", http://csis.org/blog/psuv-seeks-maintain-majority-venezuela%E2%80%99s-upcoming-legislative-elections The European Union noted that "the Venezuelan National Electoral Council accredited more than 200 international guests to accompany the day of the election. No long-term international electoral observation missions participated." Foreign observers were warned in a full-page newspaper advertisement "not to interfere with the nation's internal affairs." An opposition spokesman said that "If observers were allowed to watch the campaign, they would have seen the abuse of power and of public resources and public media." The government's Roy Chaderton said that foreign observers were present and that comments like this from the opposition were "part of the media terrorism they like to practice".
The CNE monitors political advertisements during campaigns, and reported that for a 3-day period at the end of August, opposition ads made up 60.3% of the airtime given to such ads, across the five main channels Venevisión, Televen, Globovisión, Tves and Venezolana de Televisión. El Universal, 2 September 2010, CNE: Oposición tiene 60,3% de la propaganda electoral en TV Over half the total opposition ad time of around 80 minutes was on Globovisión. Media controlled by the government gave "blanket coverage to the PSUV's campaign and token, hostile interviews to opposition candidates".The Economist, 23 September 2010, "Chávez grapples with a 50/50 nation".
In early September, one member of the five-person CNE, the pro-opposition councillor Vicente Díaz, publicly accused Chavez of breaking campaign laws by using state-run television to "berate rivals and praise friends" during the election campaign. Chavez denied breaking the law, and said that Diaz could be prosecuted for making false accusations.Toothaker, Christopher. Associated Press, 2 September 2010. "Election official: Chavez breaking campaign rules". Díaz requested the CNE open administrative proceedings, but after extensive internal discussion the CNE declined. The opposition electoral coalition, Coalition for Democratic Unity (MUD) rejected the CNE decision, and said it illustrated CNE's lack of independence and willingness to justify violation of electoral rules.
Campaign Around 17.5 million of the country's 28.5 million population were eligible to vote.
PSUV In order to revise the party's statutes, programme, and primary voting methods, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela planned a congress of 772 members representing the country's 759 municipalities. These members were elected by the members of the party in an election held on 15 November 2009. At this congress, beginning on 21 November 2009 and ending in March 2010, members were to debate each weekend over the new standards of the party, in which are included voting and selection method for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Opposition The main Venezuelan opposition parties had boycotted the 2005 parliamentary election, unexpectedly withdrawing just before election day, despite a dispute over the voting process apparently having been resolved with the support of the Organization of American States (OAS).In the run-up to the election, there were concerns about the use of digital fingerprint scanners as part of the voting process. On 28 November the National Electoral Council (CNE), in a decision brokered by the OAS, announced that it would not use the controversial machines. Despite this, several days later five opposition parties withdrew from the elections. "The move surprised election officials, and some reports indicate that international observers were unhappy that the opposition had reneged on a commitment to participate in the elections if the digital fingerprint machines were not used." - Mark Sullivan, Congressional Research Service, 28 July 2009, Venezuela: Political Conditions and U.S. Policy. (Archive copy) Eleven deputies subsequently defected to the opposition or declared themselves independent.
In June 2009, it was reported that the opposition parties were planning to create the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (Coalition for Democratic Unity, MUD) a coalition that would include all of the opposition parties which might select unique candidates for the upcoming elections. A previous opposition umbrella group, the Coordinadora Democrática, had collapsed after the failure of the 2004 recall referendum.
By April 2010, the MUD included around 50 political parties, of which 16 were national in scope and the rest regional, and received support from some other social organisations and opinion groups. The main parties included in MUD are the traditional Democratic Action and COPEI (which held power from 1958 to 1998); the left groups Movement for Socialism, Radical Cause and Red Flag Party; and more recently established parties A New Era, Justice First and For Social Democracy ("PODEMOS"). In April the MUD held primaries in 15 electoral districts, with 361,000 voters participating, and selecting 22 candidates (the remaining 143 candidates were chosen "by consensus"). The candidates chosen included Maria Corina Machado (of Sumate) and Manuel Rosales, the opposition's candidate in the 2006 presidential election and now in exile in Peru (due to corruption charges, which he denies).IPS News, 27 April 2010, Opposition Plans Return to Venezuelan Congress In addition, a number of the nine police officials imprisoned for participating in the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, regarded by the MUD as political prisoners, were also nominated, in districts with a real chance of opposition success; winning would require their release due to parliamentary immunity.
The MUD is supported by the Movimiento 2D opposition movement led by El Nacional editor and proprietor Miguel Henrique Otero. El Nacional, 26 February 2010,
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