Latest News On The Elections

Yesterday night was the closure of the very unique and controversial presidential election campaign in Venezuela. Maduro made the "best" of it claiming he is the president of what can be translated as the "scum of the earth", and that he would build schools for "mongoloid" children - verbatim. His folksy and crude way of expressing himself, a trademark of these elections (Capriles, an upper-class technocrat with a socialdemocrat streak, also adopted this), have struck raw nerves even among moderate Chavists who still support him.

Foreign publications maintain, till now, that Capriles is lagging in the latest polls and that Maduro will become the sure winner of these elections. In view of the bleak economic outlook, it strikes me why so few foreign journalists bother to ask the "why" question. The 100 days of the Maduro regime - following the suspicious death of Hugo Chavez at the hands of Cuban doctors - have been disastrous, and I can tell you this first-hand. The violence, connected or not to the election, has been unusually high. But not a word of this is found in foreign reports on the Venezuelan elections.

From what I know, I can state that Capriles has outrun Maduro in the latest tracking polls. The publication of the latest numbers is not allowed by Venezuelan electoral law, but the genuine enthusiasm found among the hundreds of thousands of Capriles followers who braved blistering sun and heat to listen to his speeches, has contrasted more and more with the forced jeering of obligated attendees to Maduro´s rallies, clad all in red and driven from all over the country in state-owned busses, of whom many yesterday took the chance of being in the capital to do some strolling-around in the busy shopping malls.

I personally believe the elections wil be a very close call. The Election Commitee CNE, although supposed to be impartial, has shown the opposite, drawing some heavy fire from the opposition. The regime will do everything to win these crucial elections, so cheating won´t be excluded. Opposition sympathizers, who number at least 6,5 million (the number who voted for Capriles last fall) smell victory for their candidate.

I will keep you posted.