https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/05\/16\/americas\/venezuela-election-sunday\/index.html<\/p>\n
Venezuelans will head to the polls Sunday to elect a new president. The winner will inherit a country in
\nthe middle of a deep economic and social crisis, with millions suering
\nfood and medicine shortages,
\nhyperinflation and growing insecurity.
\nAn estimated 1.6 million people have fled the country due to the current situation between 2015 and 2017
\naccording to the International Organization for Migration.
\nThere are the repeated calls from leaders in the region to suspend the election because it is “illegitimate” and
\nlacking in “credibility.”
\n“Maduro’s government is struggling for electoral legitimacy,” said Michael McCarthy, a research fellow at the
\nAmerican University and founder of the Caracas Wire. Maduro is trying hard to convince the world that “the vote is
\ncredible, clean and competitive,” he said.
\nIn a statement released on Monday, representatives from 10 Latin American countries along with Spain and the
\nUnited States reiterated their “condemnation of the authoritarian regime” currently instituted in the country by
\nincumbent President Nicolas Maduro. The group also made one last request for the Venezuelan government to
\nsuspend the elections.
\nMcCarthy said that, more than anything, he expects “general apathy” will be the real winner in this year’s elections,
\nwith low turnout at the polls.<\/p>\n
For Maduro, he said, voter turnout will one of the biggest challenges on Sunday.
\nAs the day of the election approaches, here’s what you need to know.
\nWho’s running?
\nThe two main players on Sunday will be Maduro and opposition candidate Henri Falcon. The main opposition
\ncoalition chose to boycott the elections.
\nMaduro has been Venezuela’s President since former President Hugo Chavez died in 2013.
\nUnder Chavez, the country turned toward socialism. Many
\nVenezuelans saw him as the hero of the poor. Before he died,
\nChavez picked Maduro as his successor, which helped put
\nMaduro over the top in the 2013 presidential election.
\nOnce he took power, Maduro kept up Chavez’s practices such
\nas huge welfare programs and price controls for most goods,
\nincluding food.
\nVenezuela holds the world’s largest supply of crude oil —
\nwhich once seemed like an endless gusher of cash for the
\ngovernment. The plummeting of the price of oil in 2016
\ncrashed the country’s economy. It has since completely
\ncollapsed, and the country now finds itself in the middle of a
\nfinancial crisis. The International Monetary fund expects that
\ninflation in Venezuela will reach 13,000% for 2018.
\nMaduro blames his opponents for Venezuela’s economic woes and says US sanctions on Venezuelan leaders are
\nproof the United States is waging an “economic war.”
\nMaduro has also kept humanitarian aid from coming into the country.
\nFalcon, Maduro’s main opponent, was once a Chavez supporter. In 2010, he broke with the ruling party, and in
\n2013 he was the campaign chief for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles. He was also the former governor of
\nthe state of Lara.
\nIn recent years he has been very vocal against the government. He also believes the way out of the financial crisis
\nis the dollarization of the country — pinning the country’s economy on the dollar.
\nHis campaign website also says that, if he wins, he will appoint a cabinet that will work to re-establish Venezuela’s
\nrelations with the world and will seek new channels for humanitarian aid and economic development for the
\ncountry.
\nIn an op-ed written for the New York Times, Falcon says he decided to break with the rest of the opposition and
\ntake part in these elections because “electoral boycotts almost never work. In country after country, opposition
\nforces that abandoned the field of electoral competition have lost ground and allowed rulers to consolidate power.
\n”
\nWhy are many foreign leaders calling the election illegitimate?
\nVenezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) set the date of the election despite the absence of an agreement
\nbetween the Maduro government and the political opposition coalition.
\nThe Presidential election was originally scheduled to take place in December of 2018, but was moved up to April in
\na surprise move by the government.<\/p>\n
The government and the opposition agreed to hold talks in the Dominican Republic to see if they could agree to
\nelection terms. When the talks broke down, the election date was set for May.
\nThe opposition then decided to boycott the election.
\nMost of the candidates that might have run against Maduro have been barred from running, including Henrique
\nCapriles, Maduro’s challenger in the last election. He was banned from all political work for 15 years in 2017.
\nHe was banned due to “administrative irregularities” during his time as governor for the Miranda state. Capriles and
\nthe opposition coalition rejected the decision, calling it a political move to silence the opposition.
\nFor their part, the Venezuelan government says the election will be fair, transparent and reliable. Maduro hails
\nVenezuela’s robust democracy as a way for the people of his country to remain free from imperialistic powers of
\nforeign countries.
\nIn a statement the US state department says the election is
\nnot taking place on a “level playing field.” The statement adds
\nthat, “by denying participation in the electoral process, the
\nMaduro regime continues to dismantle Venezuela’s
\ndemocracy and reveals its authoritarian rule.”
\nMost countries in the region echoes the same sentiment. Very
\nfew have said they see Sunday’s election as legitimate.
\nWhat happens next?
\nBy Monday, Venezuelans should have a good idea of who will
\nbe the country’s next President, if not the final results.
\nIt also remains to be seen if voters will come out to the polls
\non Sunday, or if the calls by the opposition to boycott the
\nelection will be heeded.
\nWhile the 2017 elections were marred by violence and massive protests, there are currently no large-scale
\ndemonstrations scheduled for election day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/05\/16\/americas\/venezuela-election-sunday\/index.html Venezuelans will head to the polls Sunday to elect a new president. The winner will inherit a country in the middle of a deep economic and social crisis, with millions suering food and medicine shortages, hyperinflation and growing insecurity. An estimated 1.6 million people have fled the country due to the current situation between 2015 and 2017 according to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1747,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions\/1747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}