# Why did the right wing parties boycott the Venezuelan elections? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 9, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-right-wing-parties-boycott-the-venezuelan-elections/334903 "2005-12-09T17:41:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-right-wing-parties-boycott-the-venezuelan-elections/334903/1 "2005-12-09T17:41:53Z")
I’ve read the major right wing parties (Democratic Action, Justice First, New Time, Project Venezuela, and the Social Christian Party) in Venezuela all officially boycotted the recent elections (although many candidates from these parties still ran). The results were the Fifth Republic Movement (incumbent Hugo Chavez’ party) gained huge majorities and other left wing parties (the Democratic Left Party, Movement Towards Socialism, and the Red Flag Party) picked up most of the remaining seats. Now I’ve heard a few theories about why the right boycotted the election. One was that they didn’t trust the Fifth Republic Movement to run an honest election. But refusing to oppose them guaranteed their victory, regardless of whether the elction was honest or fixed. Another theory I’ve heard is that the right wing parties knew they were going to lose so they boycotted the elections so they could claim the left wing victory was just due to a technicality rather than a real mandate. And Fifth Republic leaders have said that the right wing parties were pressured into the boycott by the US government in order to discredit the Venezuelan government. But what did the right wing parties hope to gain by the boycott? Even if they were convinced the Fifth Republic Movement was going to cheat, shouldn’t they have gone through with the election and forced their hand? Then they might have at least been able to gather evidence of the cheating. Instead by boycotting the election, the right wing allowed the left wing to win an honest election by default (assuming they wouldn’t have done so anyway). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-right-wing-parties-boycott-the-venezuelan-elections/334903/2 "2005-12-09T17:53:49Z")
Since the right wing parties figured that President Chavez was going to fix the election anyway, even if they ran, they were guaranteed to lose, and by participating, that gives legitimacy to Chavez’s government. Basically, they were saying, “We choose not to participate in a sham election.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-right-wing-parties-boycott-the-venezuelan-elections/334903/3 "2005-12-09T18:12:19Z")
See this thread (same topic, no consensus reached): [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=348110](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=348110) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-right-wing-parties-boycott-the-venezuelan-elections/334903/4 "2005-12-09T18:14:25Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Since the right wing parties figured that President Chavez was going to fix the election anyway, even if they ran, they were guaranteed to lose, and by participating, that gives legitimacy to Chavez’s government. > > Basically, they were saying, “We choose not to participate in a sham election.” I’m really disappointed in you **Captain Amazing** , The elections are still monitored by other countries, the right wing parties were thoroughly discredited by the lies and the attempt at claiming fraud in the previous contests (even their polling efforts were geared to mislead the foreign press into justifying a violent move against Chavez) in the last referendum even when no observers found evidence of it. I posted this before: The last referendum showed to be a disaster to the opposition, in the sense that we saw the opposition resorting to lies and distortions; and even when the referendum demonstrated the real support they had, they tried to manipulate the media outside Venezuela to then justify a violent move against Chavez, last time the Independent in the UK and some other extreme right sites did accept the now confirmed fake exit polling results from the opposition. It now becomes clear that the opposition has little chance of winning now and that they will go all the way with their assumption that the election will be once again a fraud, since the opposition still claims the last referendum results were. IOW: For the opposition it is better to claim fraud than confirming the real support that they have from the Venezuelan people, my big complaint to the opposition is that they are idiots, running against Chavez with a sensible alternative platform, even in a losing effort will plant the seeds to eventually take over when Chavez is no longer trusted by the people, the solution the opposition is implying with this move is the path of the coup d’état. Although heavily leaning towards Chavez, [http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/](http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/) has proven in the past to be more on the money: > **[How Venezuela’s Primero Justicia Has Blown Its Greatest Opportunity](https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/1505?artno=1619)** > > After initially maintaining that they would participate on Sunday, PJ have now decided to withdraw. This is a deeply regrettable move. Had they stayed in the contest, they could have demonstrated that they are a legitimate, mature and democratic... > [@](#): > > After initially maintaining that they would participate on Sunday, PJ have now decided to withdraw. This is a deeply regrettable move. Had they stayed in the contest, they could have demonstrated that they are a legitimate, mature and democratic organisation that plays by the rules of the game and which is willing to challenge the government from ‘within’ the system. Secondly, they would have provided Venezuelan voters with an anti-government electoral alternative. By pulling out, they have signalled that the government should be opposed from outside of the political system and formal institutions, a dangerous and destabilising strategy that failed when pursued by the opposition during the period 2001 to 2004. Whatever motivations lie behind PJs rapid about turn over recent days, the party has done a tremendous disservice to those Venezuelans looking for peace, stability and a viable electoral alternative to Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution. Borges, Geraldo Blyde and other key PJ figures have squandered an opportunity to present themselves as nation builders, reconcilers and democrats. More significantly, they have thrown away the chance to distance themselves from the deeply unpopular AD and COPEI parties, extremist elements and strategies in the anti-government movement and the Machiavellian manipulations of the US. The only hope is that candidates of the PJ party will demonstrate more maturity, wisdom and democratic conviction than their party leaders, run for office and pursue any complaints of malpractice when the contest is finished. > **[Venezuela’s Disloyal Opposition Serves the Bush Administration’s Narrow...](https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/1498?artno=1616)** > > In an arrant display of rank political opportunism, Venezuela’s faltering middle-class opposition parties have announced that they would boycott the December 4 legislative elections. Far from a principled and high minded move, this tawdry tactic... > [@](#): > > Justifying the Unjustified > The opposition parties, led by Acción Democratica (AD), Proyecto Venezuela and Copei (Christian Democrats), at first based their protests on concerns over the use of an electronic voting system, which they claimed would make it possible for election officials to obtain the identities of opposition voters. After their complaints succeeded in convincing the national electoral council (CNE) to refrain from implementing a fingerprinting system, the opposition parties subsequently declared that the removal of the fingerprint scanners was insufficient and that the CNE could not be trusted: in essence the opposition is crying fraud before a single vote has been cast. Under these rules, the Democrats would have been justified in dropping out of the 2000 U.S. presidential election after their candidate, Al Gore, had assumed that the Bush campaign would be stealing the election before that ballot was even staged. > > By choosing this truly undignified and undemocratic tactic, the Venezuelan opposition has only weakened its position in the eyes of the world. Had it participated in the election, and succeeding in documenting fraud (an unlikely scenario), it would have been able to make legitimate claims. But by refusing even symbolic participation, the opposition has chosen to court Washington alone, rather than convince the international community of its democratic bonafides. In fact, the opposition has taken this drastic move because it lacks any hope that it could prevent itself from going down before a chavista landslide victory. So they got the election comitee to move the goal posts for them and then they took the football and did go home. Guys, if reliable evidence of a fraud had been produced on the last election and referendum then the world would see this as a justifiable boycott, instead of being dignified losers you are pathetic losers, and the only thing I see the opposition embrace is the way of the gun to get their way. Problem is, the people are armed too, so good luck with that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-right-wing-parties-boycott-the-venezuelan-elections/334903/5 "2005-12-09T18:23:26Z")
Sorry, I missed that previous thread. But it seems to me that the right wing parties made a mistake. If they (or their American puppet masters if you prefer that explanation) honestly believed that the incumbent government was going to rig the elections, they should have still gone through with it. Then they should have monitored the elections, gathered any evidence of fraud they found, and used international support to call for new elections. Instead by boycotting, they allowed the incumbents to put away their supposed phoney ballots and faked voting tallies and run an honest election, secure in the knowledge that they were going to win now by being the only party running. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-right-wing-parties-boycott-the-venezuelan-elections/334903/6 "2005-12-09T19:22:37Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > I’m really disappointed in you **Captain Amazing** , The elections are still monitored by other countries, the right wing parties were thoroughly discredited by the lies and the attempt at claiming fraud in the previous contests (even their polling efforts were geared to mislead the foreign press into justifying a violent move against Chavez) in the last referendum even when no observers found evidence of it. Whether the election would have been fraudulent or not is irrelevant to whether or not the right wing parties believe it would have been, and certainly the right wing doesn’t trust Chavez, believing he relies on strong-arm tactics against the opposition and handouts to the poor in exchange for their support. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-right-wing-parties-boycott-the-venezuelan-elections/334903/7 "2005-12-09T20:05:03Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Whether the election would have been fraudulent or not is irrelevant to whether or not the right wing parties believe it would have been, and certainly the right wing doesn’t trust Chavez, believing he relies on strong-arm tactics against the opposition and handouts to the poor in exchange for their support. They are entitled to their beliefs but not the facts, since the facts did go against them in the last elections and the referendum, their beliefs do show only people capable to delude themselves and their followers. I do think Chavez in the long run is not good for Venezuela, but right now he is beating the alternatives. If the right-wing leaders cannot overcome those misleading beliefs, they will remain a sideshow from now on.