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Evil Twins

Viernes, 4 de noviembre de 2005

One can say that Pontius Pilate was the first to violate the religious laws Rome was trying to respect. In Venezuela, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice’s Constitutional Court (CC) acted in the same manner as Pontius Pilate, it washed its hands by ruling that the injunction filed by Acción Democrática against the electoral morochas (twin voting cards) lacked legal sanction (but did not declare it inadmissible), despite failing to take into account the arguments presented in the injunction on the subject matter. In other words, the ruling did not resolve the legality of the morochas; instead it turned over the problem to the National Assembly (NA). Meanwhile, the constitutional principle of proportionate representation, established in article 63 of the Constitution, was violated. According to the CC’s decision, “No proof, claim or arguments that would evidence contradictions between the mechanism known as the morochas and the constitutional norms was found, particularly when the mechanism is not prohibited by the law”. Venezuela’s voting law contemplates that 60% of the NA parliamentarians be elected nominally and the 40% remaining be elected proportionally. The pro-Chavez movement currently controls 53% of the NA, but in order for them to make changes to the Constitution (e.g. eliminating Art. 350 [which allows civilian disobedience], insuring the indefinite presidential reelection or redefining the concept of private property) or approve new laws, they require a qualified majority, or 72% of the votes (at least 2/3 of 167 parliamentarians). To obtain the qualified majority, the pro-Chavez movement applied a perverse electoral system known as the morochas, which allows the majority party to win more than 80% of Parliament’s seats with only 50% of the votes. Proof of how the morochas violate constitutional principles was demonstrated in the August 7, 2005 regional elections, which earned the MVR and its twin UVE voting card 61% of the posts despite having received only 36.8% of the votes; thus they would have never obtained 50% of these posts if the proportional representation principal would have been applied as established by the law. If the use of the morochas had not been validated for the upcoming NA elections the regime would have obtained a maximum of 86 parliamentarians (51 by nominal vote and 35 by proportional list vote), while the opposition could have obtained 76 parliamentarians (46 nominal and 30 from the list), but thanks to the twin card system the pro-Chavez movement will win 85 parliamentarian seats (85 nominally and 49 by list) in the December 4 elections, or 82% of the seats, while the most the opposition can hope to win are 28 seats (12 nominally and 16 by list); this clearly highlights the disproportionate representation and the lack of recognition of the people’s true voting will. And it is this violation of proportional representation principle that curtails the minorities’ right to participate that the STJ has validated with this decision. This unfortunate ruling assures the revolution the legal institutionalization of a totalitarian and communist regime similar to the one in Cuba. In order to obtain these changes they require a qualified majority in the NA, but now thanks to the STJ, which demonstrated that only one power rules Venezuela –that of the leader of the revolution-, Hugo Chavez will be able to establish his alleged Socialism of the XXI Century, which is nothing more than a communist regime resembling that headed by Fidel Castro in Cuba; but with the difference that each one of Chavez’s actions is validated by a series of laws drafted to favor his polices. The fact that the STJ, Attorney General Isaías Rodriguez, Ombudsman Germán Mundaraín and the National Electoral Council joined forces with the MVR to support the morochas, shows the great institutional unbalance that exists as well as the total absence of a State of Rights. But the twin voting cards are not the only problem associated with the electoral process, the manipulation of the Permanent Electoral Registry, the automatic voting machines, the fingerprint machines, the electronic voting books, the electronic vote count and the manual audit of only 37% of the ballot boxes (pre-selected by the regime of course). The opposition parties should have withdrawn their candidacies once the STJ voiced its decision, but instead they chose to protect their 28 seats, by validating an electoral process that is plagued with irregularities and which results are already known. Meanwhile, the international observers will have no other option than to accept these results, despite the irregularities that accompany them. Primero Justicia, Acción Democrática, COPEI and MAS representatives stated that they will not withdraw from the race since it is fundamental for them to continue working for the majority, to rid the Government of its popular support. When will they realize that the majority that opposes the regime does not want them to participate in a contaminated electoral process full of juridical perversions? This is why an 80% abstention is expected for the upcoming elections. In conclusion, according to six of the seven Constitutional Court magistrates, the democratic principle of the majorities supercedes that of the minorities in the case of political conflicts, and to validate this principle they validated this illegality that will secure Hugo Chavez’s permanence in power thorough the year 2030, just as he has always claimed.

(*): Venezuelan Economic Review, On Line. June 28, 2005. www.rev.com.ve
(**): Spanish version, Morochas perversas