Empty voting centers, with nobody in line to exercise the right to vote and desolate streets was the scene that prevailed in the diverse states of the country this Sunday, December 3rd, during the consultative referendum for Essequibo called by the Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
By Correspondent lapatilla.com
Despite the great deployment of the ruling party’s propaganda apparatus, which was felt through the bombardment of text messages, videos on social networks, digital platforms and even concerts, voters did not go to the polls en masse.
More than 20.6 million citizens were called to vote, so the National Electoral Council (CNE) enabled 15,857 voting centers and 28,027 tables in the 335 municipalities of the 24 federal entities of the country.
The La Patilla reporting team in the regions visited several voting centers and confirmed the low turnout of voters, a scene that contrasted with what was evident in electoral processes in previous years.
In the case of Ciudad Guayana, in the south of the country, specifically 672.8 kilometers from Caracas and 566 kilometers from Guyana, the electoral centers showed little influx of voters.
In Nueva Esparta, the main voting center of the Mariño Municipality in Margarita looked completely desolate.
In Maturín, capitals of Monagas State, even when it was announced that several transportation routes would be made available for free to mobilize voters to the voting centers, some coordinators admitted the scant presence of people who had showed up to vote.
In a tour of some centers in Barcelona, Puerto La Cruz and Lechería, north of Anzoátegui State, it was found that few people responded to the call to go out and vote.
In San Juan de los Morros, capital of Guárico State, the panorama did not change. Some regional and municipal authorities justified the absence of queues with voters by describing the consultation process as “quick.” In addition, it was informed that some voting centers took a while to open, caused by problems with the voting machines and the internet connection through the state-run Cantv.
In Apure, the day was marked by irregularities and empty voting centers. An anonymous source, who asked to keep his name confidential for fear of reprisals, reported that at the Daniel O’Leary high school in San Fernando de Apure: “the process stalled, only four tables were opened, the notebooks came in disheveled, some voters were on the list and others not, there are many irregularities, an active voter appears as deceased on the CNE list. The centers are taken over by the PSUV.” (PSUV, government political party)
In Barinas, all voting centers were desolate. Citizen Juan Carlos Lozada commented that: “people preferred to spend their time queuing for gasoline, rather than going to vote for something that makes no sense,” while adding that “the good thing about the referendum is that (electrical) power did not go out.”
In the Tovar, ‘Alberto Adriani’ and Zea municipalities of Mérida State, as well as in the Merida ‘páramo’ (highlands) and in the Pan-American zone, the centers were active early, but people arrived “in dribs and drabs.”
In Carabobo, south of Valencia, an area that has traditionally expressed its support for the ruling party, the common denominator in the voting centers at the Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi School, the Isidro Ramírez Basic School and the Domingo Savio Educational Unit, was very little affluence of voters.
Threats and pressure
Coercion and blackmail on public administration workers by the official employers were a constant.
Through text messaging, representatives of the Municipal Directorate of Education of the Torres municipality in Lara State, demanded that their staff participate in the Consultative Referendum “in defense of Essequibo.”
On the other hand, a battery of messages was broadcast in which instructions were given to schoolteachers that each of them must take a photograph when voting as proof of attendance, as well as going through the “pinto tricolor” (government party checkpoints) to fill out a form with your name and identity card, which would later be sent to a situational room.
In Falcón, public employees and oil workers received messages from their bosses asking them to come and exercise their right to vote and report back to them as soon as they had already voted. Also, the community councils called to vote id people wanted to continue with the option of having access to the CLAP bag (food aid program).
In addition, service stations were set up in Punto Fijo and Coro to supply fuel solely for the vehicles that were going to transport voters. Such was the case of the Brisa Lago service station, located on the Coro-Punto Fijo highway, which offered gasoline at international prices and was dispensed free of charge without amount restrictions to those who would provide the voter hauling service.
In Carúpano, capital of the ‘Bermúdez’ municipality of Sucre State, press workers reported that members of the ‘Plan República’ (Military security operation around the voting process) prevented press coverage this day. It was well known that the ‘INCES’ Carúpano and the Jorge Ordosgoitti high school were two of the voting centers where access was prevented.
CNE Opacity
The established voting hours were from 6:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the afternoon. However, the CNE announced an extension until 8:00 p.m., due to the “registered massive participation”, despite reports of low attendance at all voting centers.
The Principal Rector of the CNE, Elvis Amoroso, offered on Sunday night the first bulletin of the consultative referendum on the ‘Essequibo territorial dispute with Guyana’, where he assured that participation reached 10,554,320 votes, a figure that is considerably different from what was observed during the uneventful day.
Amoroso highlighted that the “yes” option regarding the five questions posed in the consultative referendum had an “obvious and overwhelming victory.” In addition, he highlighted the “extraordinary, unprecedented participation.”
However, the CNE did not provide details about the percentage of participation, abstention, or percentage of votes counted. At the time of writing this note, the CNE website had not yet published the final results of the referendum.