Venezuela’s Excellent Electoral System

Dariela Aquique

HAVANA TIMES — The Venezuelan elections were held this past Sunday and of course the Cuban media were focused on everything that happened with regard to them.

From the early morning hours, images were transmitted of the different parishes in which voting took place. Featured were interviews of government figures and Venezuelan citizens (only Chavez supporters of course).

They also showed the arrival of Chavez himself when it came time for him to vote, as well as his responses to the international press.

As many expected, the elections resulted in the reelection of President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias by about 11 percent over his opponent, Henrique Capriles. Once again Chavez achieved a victory after being in office since 1998.

As many people say, including former US president Jimmy Carter, the Venezuelan electoral system is an example of participatory democracy. It has even been called the best in the world for its design, which doesn’t allow fraud.

As long as the will of the people is asserted in a constitutional manner, their electoral system must be praiseworthy, something about which the Venezuelan people are also very proud.

This was demonstrated in the responses of those interviewed, with everyone demonstrating their pride in their system, comparing it with that of many countries, including the Republic of Cuba.

But of course, not only Venezuela’s system, but any electoral system is better than Cuba’s voting method, where citizens are far removed from being the ones who vote for their president.

This invention [Cuba’s electoral system] about which our officials brag so much has been no more than a strategy to keep themselves in office, not to mention the one-party system (and we all know what that means).

Chavez, though not my cup of tea, has been elected and re-elected by the people, and this is a demonstration of popular power. This is unlike our system, which is now ready to start its voting, though we all know in advance what the results will be.