Can there be free and fair elections in Venezuela?

History has shown that elections in Venezuela for the past 16 years Venezuela have been tainted. Although some may say that there is a democracy because there are elections, most of them have not been fair.

On December 6, 2015, Venezuela will embark on the journey of trying once again to have transparent Parliamentary elections. The inability of the Maduro regime to conduct honest and transparent elections started in 2014 when Maduro “won” the presidential election against Henrique Capriles.  Ignoring the request of the opposition to recount the votes, Maduro “won” by a very narrow margin. Although Maduro agreed to re-count the votes, that never happened and Capriles lost the election

Prior to the 2014 Presidential elections, a survey conducted by the Venezuelan Institute for Data Analysis indicated that 45% all Venezuelans (including Chavistas) would have voted for Henrique Capriles. 39 % said they would have voted for Nicolas Maduro and 16 % were undecided.  We all know the outcome.

Since then, the Maduro regime with President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, have repeatedly made undemocratic moves by paralyzing members of the Parliament. That is the case of Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado who had been fired from her Legislature post by Diosdado Cabello even though the people of Venezuela elected her. Other opposition leaders banned from running are Daniel Ceballo, former Mayor of San Cristobal Municipality, in Tachira State, and Vicencio “Enzo” Scarano, former mayor of the municipality of San Diego in Carabobo State.

The electoral corruption and violation of democratic principals didn’t start with Nicolas Maduro. According to Forensic Analysis of Venezuelan Elections, during Chávez there were a number of elections with questionable outcomes. A case in point is the 2004 Presidential Recall Referendum. According to Forensic Analysis, the reliability of the voters registered was questionable, and there were unusual “variations in the electoral roll which were decisive in winning the 50% majority in the 2004 Referendum.”

Going back to the new December 2015 Parliamentary elections, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has rejected the OAS proposal to take part in the election as an observer. In a country where there is no transparency and the institutions of government are sequestered, can we honestly believe that Venezuela will have fair and transparent elections?