Why did Nicolas Maduro appear in the polls 13 times for the Venezuelan presidential election?

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — His smile is confident, his hair well-groomed and his visage quite square: the first candidate you’ll likely see. Voting in the current president of Venezuela there is an election Nicolas MaduroThe incumbent is seeking re-election.

Unlike some of his nine challengers, Maduro appears in the poll not once or twice, but a total of 13 times – and he is sure to capture voters’ attention.

Every life, it is one of the important political teams he is representing in the much-awaited presidential election on July 28. Maduro took all but four lines of voting in first place, on a day when leftover footage of the contenders was sprinkled in here and there, including former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, who appeared to deny the president third place. He was the only contender with real prospects. time limit.

However, the sheer selection of images of Maduro shown at the referendum belies the seriousness of the era.

Venezuela faces its toughest electoral test in many years. The outcome could give Maduro another six years in power or end the self-described socialist policies that once effectively promoted anti-poverty systems, but whose continued mismanagement has since doomed the country. Throw into the ongoing financial crisis.

Venezuelan electoral rules allow photographs of applicants to be displayed on ballots – both digital photos inside Venezuela and displayed to those voting in another country – from time to time in accordance with the preferences of the parties that support them. This year’s ballot paper contains 38 photographs, each with each candidate’s name and party beneath them.

Experienced Venezuelan voters are also on hand to keep track of the multiple applicants on the touchscreens they will be wearing during the South American nation’s elections.

However for some people, that much footage may be overwhelming.

“I get dizzy when I see Maduro on that card so many times, but I know the danger is in the candidates who don’t represent us,” said Sonia Guevara, a 38-year-old workplace worker, referring to a couple protesting. Said while doing. Applicants who have different identity related to Govt.

One such example is the case of Luis Martínez, candidate of the “Acción Democrática” – Democratic Motion Party or AD for Cut – a general opposition group whose leadership was suspended months ago by a Maduro-loyal government court.

Martínez has decided not to support contender Gonzalez Unitary Platform Alliance of Opposition,

“It’s confusing. I had to explain to my mother several times that the Eddie on the card is not the Eddie she always votes for,” Guevara said. “My mother is 71 years old, and I tell her that this Don’t vote for Bar Eddy.”

Gonzalez has been featured in the poll three times. Martínez, considered the central government’s best friend, offers six examples.

The number of eligible voters before the last election is estimated to be around 17 million. Another 4 million Venezuelans living in another country are registered to vote, although only 69,000 met the requirements set by the government to vote outside the country. Expensive and time-consuming government requirements to sign up, lack of information, and mandatory proof of criminal residency in a country prevented many immigrants from signing up to vote.

Francisco Maldonado, a 50-year-old service provider in Caracas, is able to vote.

“At this point, I think we all know who we’re going to vote for, but more than ever we have to be careful, we have to be just as careful when using an ATM,” Maldonado said. “We can’t make any mistakes when marking.”

The actual population of Venezuela is unclear as the largest census in a South American country was conducted in 2011. Based on population, it was concluded that there were 27.2 million people there – but since the country’s political, economic and social disaster over the past decade, more than 7.7 million people have left.

Laura Dibb, Venezuela program director at WOLA, a Washington-based NGO concerned about human rights in the United States, said that while it is common for a candidate’s face to be repeated on the ballot, being on it 13 times, it does happen. . Maduro is “easiest to recognize visually.”

Noting that the opposition group supporting González does not have access to professional media in Venezuela, Dib said, “It is hard for the opposition to educate voters about how to vote.”

He also said there were other complicating issues – some parties were using the same colors on the ballot as those supporting Maduro. And a candidate from an opposition faction was allowed to use the same color as the primary opposition candidate team.

“It also creates confusion and it violates the rules of the CNE,” Dibb said of the acronym in Spanish for the National Electoral Council.

Furthermore, the electoral regulation allows parties to change applicants up to 10 days before the election time, despite the fact that this change cannot be reflected on the ballots, which have already been programmed on digital machines or Have been published for vote in any other country.

If the crowd votes for a replacement candidate, Dibb said, “the votes cast will be voided.”

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Related Press scribbler E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico Town contributed to this record.

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