CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said yesterday there was no chance of fraud in tomorrow‘s parliamentary election despite complaints from some of his foes about an unfair system.
In about a dozen elections since Chavez won the South American nation’s presidency in 1998, international observers have generally praised Venezuela’s voting systems as fair, but opposition parties have sometimes cried foul.
Chavez allies said this week that some opposition politicians were already preparing to protest after Sunday’s vote for the 165-member National Assembly, where the government is likely to keep a healthy majority of seats.
“There is no possibility of fraud,” Chavez said on state TV. “Let’s wait for the results in the night, you know that they are well-protected.”
An electoral official critical of the government this week echoed opposition concerns that Chavez overused state resources, including dominating the media, during the campaign.
However, the official said that voting mechanisms were world class. No senior opposition leader has suggested outright fraud.
Polls and analysts say Sunday’s popular vote is likely to be broadly split down the middle, with Chavez’s ruling Socialist Party perhaps a couple of percentage points ahead of an opposition umbrella movement.
But due to electoral district boundary changes favouring the government, the Socialist Party would, in that scenario, take a bigger majority in parliament. A crucial point is whether or not the government keeps a two-thirds majority, which would enable it to pass major legislation unimpeded.
The election is an important test of support for Chavez and his self-styled “revolution” in South America’s biggest oil exporter ahead of a 2012 presidential vote.
