Unquestioningly they are showing all the signs of an extremest party trying anything and everything to cling to power as popular opinion begins to go against them as their failures mount up and start to become more obvious to the population. Let's break it down and see if we can see how extremist parties with unpopular policies try to hold on to continue to advance their extreme policies.
By JUAN FORERO and ANATOLY KURMANAEV
Dec. 3, 2015 8:03 p.m. ET
CARACAS, Venezuela—Venezuela’s socialist government, facing the prospect of its first major election defeat in Sunday’s congressional vote, is fighting back against a strong opposition by resorting to a trusted formula of spreading fear and currying favor.
Certainly extremists always overstate threats, especially those from outside of the country and especially those threats that succeeded in destruction and loss of life under the extremists' watch due to their failures to properly access the threat even after being warned of it.
State workers are being pressured to vote for candidates of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or PSUV, or risk losing their jobs, public employees said in interviews. In speeches and rallies, officials remind audiences how much they depend on government largess, even as they tell grandmothers that a new congress will eliminate their pensions. ...
It extreme and cowardly to eliminate or to diminish the pensions that people have paid into and counted on their whole lives. This too is an indication of an extremist party that is out of control and doesn't deserve to be in power.
If voters give the edge to the opposition, President Nicolás Maduro says his government could go into “rebellion” and refuse to share any power—intimating that he would use force if necessary.
“Imagine if they dominated the National Assembly,” Mr. Maduro said in a televised address this week. “I wouldn’t allow it, I swear, I wouldn’t let my hands be tied by anyone..."
Obstruction of anything that the opposition tries to do, even if it is something that they have themselves proposed in the past is yet another indication that they don't deserve the support and the votes of the population. Nothing could be clearer.
More than half of Venezuelan voters believe their electronically registered ballots aren’t secret, according to a recent survey by the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas.
One in six voters works in the government, and every fourth benefits from social-spending programs that the government touts for hours each day in more than half a dozen state-run television channels.
“The fear of retaliation is significant,” said Benigno Alarcón, the head of political studies at the Catholic University here. “It could change the voting outcome in certain districts.”
Such tactics, and a complicated voting system that accords greater weight to rural government strongholds, might harm the opposition’s results, electoral experts say, meaning less power for Mr. Maduro’s foes in the congress even if they win.
A party that has to rely on its government granted ability to draw election districts to stay in power is an unacceptable perversion of democracy and a further sign that they don't deserve support.
The government has used a range of tools to create what Venezuelan and international electoral experts call an uneven playing field. On the complex ballot for Sunday, officials even gave a pro-government party a name and logo nearly identical to that of the opposition’s coalition.
Organizations with years of experience monitoring elections, such as the Organization of American States, have been barred from observing Sunday’s vote.
Only the guilty can object to outside, accredited election watchers, whether it is the OAS or even Jimmy Carter's democracy project. Such organizations are trained to spot election abuses that the opposition party might not recognize like the in power, crooked party denying people's right to vote because the potential voter shares a name with a convicted felon, even if the felon lives in a completely different jurisdiction. I am not saving that this has happened in this case but it is an example of how low that the most corrupt will go.
And the government has used its overwhelming media presence—including its influence on the country’s private media—to focus on its message that an opposition victory would mean chaos. ...
“It’s the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to electoral manipulation,” said Harold Trinkunas, the Venezuelan-born director of the Latin America Initiative at the Brookings Institution. “They are trying to move the needle with everything they can so they can hold down the opposition numbers on election day, to ensure that they keep it to a simple majority.”
...Venezuela’s three million public employees face the most pressure. One department head at the Justice Ministry said superiors push her and others to attend pro-government rallies, where attendance is taken.
“The message is, you could lose your job,” she said, explaining how security guards are posted at the exit points of rallies to stop attendees from leaving until they are over.
...José Mirador, who sells old furniture and appliances, got a new free computer this week thanks to a recently instituted state program. He says he plans to vote for the opposition, but that the message of fear has worked. among the poor. “People want change, but they are afraid,” he said.
It seems that the government expects to lose, but are pulling out all the stops to ensure that the opposition legislature does not have enough votes for a supermajority.
In spite of polls showing a 70% margin of support for the opposition, I suspect the government will succeed. With major opposition leaders in jail, unsupervised elections, massive election funding of the party in power, and threats against the voting blocks that 70 percent is very unlikely to materialize.
I am afraid that you are right, unfortunately. Especially considering how successful other extremist parties have been in other countries at clinging to power in the face of a growing majority against them.
