Elections in Venezuela are held at a national level for the President of

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

and

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

, and for a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

. The

President of Venezuela The president of Venezuela (), officially known as the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (), is the executive head of state and head of government of Venezuela. The president leads the National Executive of the Venezuelan go ...

is elected for a six-year term by

direct election Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons or political party that they want to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are chosen ...

plurality voting Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which the candidates in an electoral district who poll more than any other (that is, receive a plurality) are elected. Under single-winner plurality voting, and in systems based on single-member ...

, and is eligible for re-election. The

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

''(Asamblea Nacional)'' has 277 members ''(diputados)'', elected for five-year terms using a

mixed-member majoritarian representation Mixed-member majoritarian representation (MMM) is type of a mixed electoral system combining winner-take-all and proportional methods, where the disproportional results of the winner-take-all part are dominant over the ''proportional'' compon ...

system. Elections also take place at state level and local level. Since 1998, elections in Venezuela have been automated (using

touch-screen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

DRE voting machine A DRE voting machine, or direct-recording electronic voting machine, records votes by means of a ballot display provided with mechanical or electro-optical components that can be activated by the voter. These are typically buttons or a touchsc ...

s which provide a

Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verified paper record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters who use an electronic voting system. A VVPAT allows voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detect possible elec ...

), and administered by the National Electoral Council. The

voting age A legal voting age is the minimum age that a person is allowed to Voting, vote in a democracy, democratic process. For General election, general elections around the world, the right to vote is restricted to adults, and most nations use 18 year ...

is 18, and (as of 2011) 95% of eligible voters are legally registered. Prior to the early 1990s, Venezuela was considered an unusually long-standing and stable

liberal democracy Liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy, is a form of government that combines the organization of a democracy with ideas of liberalism, liberal political philosophy. Common elements within a liberal dem ...

in Latin America, having transitioned to democracy in 1958. After the victory of socialist populist

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

in the 1998 presidential election, Venezuela gradually underwent

democratic backsliding Democratic backsliding or autocratization is a process of regime change toward autocracy in which the exercise of political power becomes more arbitrary and repressive. The process typically restricts the space for public contest and politi ...

before transitioning to an authoritarian system of government where political and civil rights are not protected, and elections are not free and fair. Under Chávez's rule and later under the rule of his successor

Nicolás Maduro Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and former union leader serving as the 53rd president of Venezuela since 2013. Previously, he was the 24th Vice President of Venezuela, vice president from 2012 to 20 ...

, power has been concentrated in the hands of the executive, institutional checks and balances have been undermined, independent media have been repressed, and opposition forces have been marginalized in governing institutions, such as congress, courts, oversight agencies, the state-owned petroleum company (PDVSA), and the military. Politics are polarized between supporters of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Nicolás Maduro, organized as the United Socialist Party (PSUV) and the Great Patriotic Pole, and several opposition parties. Opposition parties and opposition candidates have regularly been banned from contesting elections. At other times, opposition parties have boycotted national elections, citing their undemocratic nature. Venezuela was ranked the third least electoral

democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean The Democracy in the Americas can be comparative politics, compared according to the different definitions of democracy. The V-Dem Democracy indices considers the Americas with the highest Democracy indices, democracy scores in 2023 as Argentina, ...

according to V-Dem Democracy indices in 2023 with a score of 0.214 out of one.Democracy Report 2023, Table 3, V-Dem Institute, 2023
/ref>

Result

2000 Venezuelan parliamentary election

2020 Venezuelan parliamentary election

History

1811–1889: First congress and presidents

On 18 April 1810, agents of the Spanish Regency arrived in the city of

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

. After considerable political tumult, the local nobility announced an extraordinary open hearing of the '' cabildo'' (the municipal council) on 19 April. On that day, an expanded municipal government of Caracas took power in the name of

Ferdinand VII Ferdinand VII (; 14 October 1784 – 29 September 1833) was King of Spain during the early 19th century. He reigned briefly in 1808 and then again from 1813 to his death in 1833. Before 1813 he was known as ''el Deseado'' (the Desired), and af ...

, calling itself The Supreme Junta to Preserve the Rights of Ferdinand VII. The Caracas Junta called for the convention of a congress of the Venezuelan provinces which began meeting the following March, at which time the Junta dissolved itself.

Francisco de Miranda Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez de Espinoza (28 March 1750 – 14 July 1816), commonly known as Francisco de Miranda (), was a Venezuelan military leader and revolutionary who fought in the American Revolutionary War, the French R ...

was elected to the Congress and began agitating for independence. Juan Lovera 2012 007

In March 1811 during the

Spanish American wars of independence The Spanish American wars of independence () took place across the Spanish Empire during the early 19th century. The struggles in both hemispheres began shortly after the outbreak of the Peninsular War, forming part of the broader context of the ...

, the first Venezuelan constitutional congress established the executive power a

triumvirate A triumvirate () or a triarchy is a political institution ruled or dominated by three individuals, known as triumvirs (). The arrangement can be formal or informal. Though the three leaders in a triumvirate are notionally equal, the actual distr ...

in which three men shared executive power and rotated the presidency every week.

Cristóbal Mendoza José Cristóbal Hurtado de Mendoza y Montilla (23 June 1772 – 8 February 1829), commonly known as Cristóbal Mendoza, was a Venezuelan lawyer, politician, writer, and academic. Cristobal is best known for serving as the first official List o ...

became a member of the triumvirate that headed the

First Republic of Venezuela The First Republic of Venezuela () was the first independent government of Venezuela, lasting from 5 July 1811, to 25 July 1812. The period of the First Republic began with the overthrow of the Spanish colonial authorities and the establishment ...

and was unanimously elected by the other two as the first to go in rotation on 5 March 1811. Mendoza was author of the

Venezuelan Declaration of Independence The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence () is a document drafted and adopted by Venezuelan on July 5, 1811, through which Venezuelans made the decision to separate from the History of Spain (1810–1873), Spanish Crown in order to establish a ...

, formally issued on 5 July 1811,In Spanish
Venezuelan Declaration of Independence
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes on which date the presidential designation also took effect. The first Constitution of the Republic of Venezuela was designed in December 1811.Briceño Perozo, Mario. "Mendoza, Cristóbal de" in ''Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela'', Vol. 3. Caracas: Fundación Polar, 1999. The Congress established a

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

called the United States of Venezuela in the Constitution, crafted mostly by lawyer Juan Germán Roscio, that it ratified on 21 December 1811. The Constitution created a strong

bicameral legislature Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single ...

and, as also happened in neighboring New Granada, the Congress kept the weak executive consisting of a triumvirate. A second

followed on April 3, 1812. The presidency was disestablished in 1813, when Simon Bolivar established the

Third Republic of Venezuela The Third Republic of Venezuela () was the reestablished Republic of Venezuela declared by Simón Bolívar in the year 1817, during the Venezuelan War of Independence. The beginning of the Third Republic of Venezuela is attributed to the peri ...

(1817–1819). In 1830,

José Antonio Páez José Antonio Páez Herrera (; 13 June 1790 – 6 May 1873) was a Venezuelan politician and military officer who served as the president of Venezuela three times. The first as the 5th president from 1830 to 1835, the second as the 8th president ...

declared Venezuela independent from

Gran Colombia Gran Colombia (, "Great Colombia"), also known as Greater Colombia and officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish language, Spanish: ''República de Colombia''), was a state that encompassed much of northern South America and parts of Central ...

and became president, taking office on January 13, 1830. Presidents of Venezuela who served under the 1864 constitution (starting with

Juan Crisóstomo Falcón Juan Crisóstomo Falcón Zavarce (27 January 1820 – 29 April 1870) was the president of Venezuela from 1863 to 1868.1834 Venezuelan presidential election, which was won by José María Vargas.

1900–1989: First democratic elections

El Trienio Adeco El Trienio Adeco was a three-year period in Venezuelan history, from 1945 to 1948, under the government of the popular party Democratic Action (Venezuela), Democratic Action (, its adherents ''adecos''). The party gained office via the 1945 Ven ...

was a period in Venezuelan history from 1945 to 1948 under the government of Democratic Action, a party which gained office via the 1945 Venezuelan coup d'état against President

Isaías Medina Angarita Isaías Medina Angarita (6 July 1897 – 15 September 1953) was a Venezuelan military and politician who served as President of Venezuela from 1941 until 1945, during World War II. He followed the path of his predecessor Eleazar López Contre ...

of the two-year-old Venezuelan Democratic Party. El Trienio Adeco saw the first democratic elections in Venezuelan history, beginning with the Constituent Assembly elections held in

on 27 October 1946, Democratic Action, which won 137 of the 160 seats in the Assembly. Voter turnout was 86.6%. General elections held in Venezuela on 14 December 1947 Nohlen, D (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II'', p555 are described as the first honest elections in Venezuela. At the time, there were 110 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 46 seats in the Senate, with Democratic Action winning a majority of both. The 1948 Venezuelan coup d'état took place on 24 November 1948, when elected president

Rómulo Gallegos Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire (2 August 1884 – 5 April 1969) was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. In 1948, he became the first freely elected President of Venezuela, president in Venezuela's history. He was removed from ...

was overthrown a year after his election. Democracy would not be restored until the

1958 Venezuelan coup d'état The 1958 Venezuelan coup d'état took place on 23 January 1958, when the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez was overthrown. A transition government under first Adm. Wolfgang Larrazábal and then Edgar Sanabria was put in place until December ...

overthrew the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez. A referendum on the presidential term and national and regional governors was held on 15 December 1957, resulting in the referendum's approval. Voters were asked whether they approved of President Marcos Pérez Jiménez remaining in power without fresh elections, and appointing government nominees as members of the national parliament, regional assemblies and local councils.Nohlen, p566 The referendum was held under non-democratic conditions. Jiménez was overthrown the following year. In the 7 December 1958 general elections, voter turnout was recorded at 94.4% in the presidential election and 92.1% in the Congressional elections. Democratic Action again swept the elections, winning the presidency and two majorities.

1990–1999: Later constitutions

The 1998 presidential election was the first to be carried out with a new National Electoral Council. Traditionally poll workers had been provided by the parties, but in this election "a lottery was set up to draft 300,000 registered voters as poll workers". The elections also saw "the world's first automated voting system, which featured a single integrated electronic network that was supposed to transmit the results from the polling stations to central headquarters within minutes." The automated vote system enabled the Electoral Council to announce the results within 2.5 hours of the polls closing. After corroborating the results with the

Carter Center The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn Carter partnered with Emory University after his defeat in the 1980 United States presidential ele ...

, the losing candidate conceded several hours later.McCoy, Jennifer (1999), "Chavez and the End of "Partyarchy" in Venezuela", ''Journal of Democracy'', 10(3), pp64-77 In the 1998 presidential elections, one of candidate

's electoral promises was to organize a referendum asking the people if they wanted to convene a National Constituent Assembly. His first decree as president was thus to order such a referendum, which took place on 19 April. The electorate were asked two questionswhether a constituent assembly should be convened, and whether it should follow the mechanisms proposed by the president. The 1998 parliamentary elections were on 8 November 1998. There were 207 seats in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

and 54 seats in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. Under the new Bolivarian 1999 Constitution, the legislative branch of Government in Venezuela is represented by a

. The Assembly is made up of 165 deputies ''(diputados)'', who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote on a national party-list

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

system. In addition, three deputies are returned on a state-by-state basis, and three seats were reserved for representatives of Venezuela's indigenous peoples. All deputies serve five-year terms. In 1999 a two-term limit of six years each was established for the

2000–present: Recent elections

In 2007 the leading

Fifth Republic Movement The Fifth Republic Movement (Spanish: ''Movimiento V uintaRepública'', MVR) was a Socialism, socialist political party in Venezuela. It was founded in July 1997, following a national congress of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, to ...

(MVR) party dissolved and the

United Socialist Party of Venezuela The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (, PSUV, ) is a Socialism, socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2007. It was formed from a merger of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivar ...

(PSUV) formed as the leading government party. On 15 August 2007, PSUV founder and Venezuelan President

proposed an amendment to 33 articles of Venezuela's 350-article

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

. Chávez stated that the proposed constitutional reforms were needed to complete the transition to a socialist republic and to implement his

Bolivarian Revolution The Bolivarian Revolution is a social revolution and ongoing political process in Venezuela that was started by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the founder of the Fifth Republic Movement and later the United Socialist Party of Venezuela ...

. The proposal was narrowly defeated by 51 to 49 percent. In 2009 a constitutional referendum resulted in the abolition of

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction on the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potential for monopoly, w ...

s for the office of President of Venezuela. The 2010 parliamentary elections took place on 26 September 2010 to elect the 165 deputies to the

. Venezuelan opposition parties (which had boycotted the previous 2005 election, thus allowing the MVR to gain a supermajority) participated in the election through the Coalition for Democratic Unity (MUD).Devereux, Chrlie and Corina Rodriguez Pons. ''Business Week'', 27 September 2010.
"Venezuela’s Opposition Pushes Back Chavez in Vote".
/ref> The National Electoral council scheduled regional elections for 16 December 2012 to elect state governors and state legislators,Definidas las fechas de elecciones para Gobernadores y Alcaldes
Noticias24, 20 September 2011 – "El 16 de diciembre de 2012 serán las elecciones de Gobernadores y Consejos Legislativos Regionales .." with PSUV winning the governorships of 20 of the 23 states.PSUV gana 19 gobernaciones
Globovision, 16 December 2012 Voter turnout was 53%.Hugo Chavez allies win 20 of 23 Venezuela governorships
BBC News, 17 December 2012 New versions of the Basic Law of Electoral Processes (, LOPE) were issued by the CNE on 7 June 2012 and 18 January 2013. Venezuela's municipal elections were delayed from their intended date of 14 April 2013 after the death of President Hugo Chávez on 5 March 2013, as a new presidential election was also scheduled for 14 April. Winning the vote by a narrow margin,

was sworn in as the new president on 19 April 2013. After around an eight-month delay, municipal elections on December 8, 2013, elected 337 mayors and 2,455 local councillors for their respective 2013–2017 terms. The parliamentary elections in 2015 took place on 6 December 2015 to elect the 164 deputies and three indigenous representatives of the National Assembly. The result was a decisive defeat for the ruling PSUV, which lost control of the Assembly for the first time since 1999. The

Democratic Unity Roundtable The Democratic Unity Roundtable (, MUD) was a catch-all electoral coalition of Venezuelan political parties formed in January 2008 to unify the opposition to President Hugo Chávez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela in the 2010 Venezue ...

(MUD) won the majority of seats. A week after the 2015 parliamentary elections, the outgoing National Assembly created the "National Communal Parliament", with President Maduro stating "All power to the Communal parliament". The move was described by

Janes Information Services Janes is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane. History Jane's Information Group was founded in 1898 by Fred ...

as an attempt "to sideline and leapfrog the incoming opposition-controlled National Assembly". The process to hold a Venezuelan recall referendum to vote on recalling Maduro started on 2 May 2016. In July 2016, the Venezuelan government stated that if enough signatures were collected in the second petition stage, a recall vote would be held no sooner than 2017. However, the government cancelled the recall movement on 21 October 2017, with conventional media describing President Maduro as a

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute Power (social and political), power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to r ...

following the suspension of movement. After Venezuela entered into a

constitutional crisis In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the constitution, political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variat ...

when the Supreme Tribunal removed power from the National Assembly, months of protests occurred in 2017, resulting in President Maduro calling for the rewriting of the constitution. The

2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election Constituent Assembly elections were held in Venezuela on 30 July 2017 to elect the members of the 2017 Constituent National Assembly (; ANC). Unlike the 1999 Constituent National Assembly, which was assembled following a referendum, the 2017 elec ...

took place, electing all pro-Maduro candidates to the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, removing power from the National Assembly once again. In December 2020, the Venezuelan Constitutional Assembly was dismantled without presenting a draft for the new constitution. On July 28, 2024, presidential elections were held for the term of 2025 - 2031, where the incumbent President, Nicolas Maduro, ran against Edmungo Gonzalez. The result of the election became contested as the government claimed Nicolas Maduro won with 51.90% of the vote. However, international organism including the Carter center and the United Nations contested this claim as being false and filled with irregularities. On the other hand, the opposition published the detailed electoral results in the form of scanned copies of the tally sheets on the website ''resultadospresidencialesvenezuela2024.com'' The opposition was able to obtain 83.50% of the reported tallies, showing that the candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won with 67.08% of the votes.

Voting system

Electoral registration

Under the 1999

Constitution of Venezuela The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( (CRBV)) is the current and twenty-sixth constitution of Venezuela. It was drafted in mid-1999 by a constituent assembly that had been created by popular referendum. Adopted in December ...

, all Venezuelans over the age of 18 have the right to vote (Article 64). Additionally, long-term resident non-nationals over 18 (resident over 10 years) have the right to vote in regional and local elections (Article 64). Article 56 specifies that everyone has "the right to be registered free of charge with the Civil Registry Office after birth, and to obtain public documents constituting evidence of their biological identity, in accordance with the law." According to the National Electoral Council, the proportion of the voting-age population on the Electoral Register has risen from 80% in 1998 to 95% in 2011, with 19m (including nearly 100,000 voters outside Venezuela) registered in 2012 compared with 12m in 2003.Venezuelan Embassy in the UK, 20 May 2012
THE VENEZUELAN ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND THE ELECTIONS OF 2012
, accessed 30 April 2013 Voters register fingerprints and identity card details onto the Electoral Register, and these are to be verified during the voting process.

Electoral system

Venezuela elects at a national level the

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

and

, and a

federal

. The President is elected for a six-year term by

, and is (since the 2009 Venezuelan constitutional referendum) eligible for re-election. The

''(Asamblea Nacional)'' has 165 members ''(diputados)'', elected for five-year terms (see #Parliamentary voting system below).

Party system

Background

Democracy in Venezuela Democracy in Venezuela refers to the system of governance that has prevailed in Venezuela since direct election at the presidential level and later in the 1990s at the regional level. Democracy as a system of government in the country has had a hist ...

developed during the twentieth century, with Democratic Action (founded in 1941) and its antecedents playing an important role in the early years. Democratic Action led the government during Venezuela's first democratic period ( 1945–1948). After an intervening decade of dictatorship (1948–1958) saw AD excluded from power, four Venezuelan presidents came from Democratic Action from the 1960s to the 1990s. This period, incorrectly called the "Fourth Republic" by

Hugo Chavez Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Hugo (film), ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise ...

and his followers, is marked by the development of the Punto Fijo Pact between the major parties (originally including the Democratic Republican Union, which later dwindled in significance), with the notable exclusion of the

Communist Party of Venezuela The Communist Party of Venezuela (, PCV) is a communist party in Venezuela. Founded in 1931, it is the oldest active political party in Venezuela, and was the country's main leftist party until it fractured into rival factions in 1971. The P ...

. By the end of the 1990s, however, the now two-party system's credibility was almost nonexistent, mostly because of the corruption and poverty that Venezuelans experienced because of the debt crisis developed during the 1980s. Democratic Action's last president (

Carlos Andrés Pérez Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez (27 October 1922 – 25 December 2010) also known as CAP and often referred to as ''Venezuelan Spanish#Some examples of Spanish words common in Venezuela.2C including some native Venezuelanisms .28slang.29, El ...

) was impeached for corruption in 1993, and spent several years in prison as a result. The other main traditional party Copei, provided two Venezuelan presidents ( Rafael Caldera, 1969–1974, and Luis Herrera Campins, 1979–1983).

Current

Confidence in the traditional parties collapsed enough that the 1993 presidential elections were won by Rafael Caldera on around 30% of the vote, representing a new electoral coalition, National Convergence. By 1998, support for Democratic Action and COPEI had fallen still further, and the 1998 election was won by political outsider

. Since then, a range of newer parties (such as

A New Era Un Nuevo Tiempo (Spanish for 'A New Era', UNT) is a centre-left politics, centre-left political party in Venezuela. It received 11% of the vote in the 2008 Venezuelan regional elections, 2008 regional elections. The party arose in Zulia State, ...

and Justice First) have been more prominent in opposition to Chávez than the traditional main parties Democratic Action and COPEI. The

(''Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela'', PSUV) was created in 2007, uniting a number of smaller parties supporting Chávez'

with Chávez'

. It is the lead party of the Great Patriotic Pole coalition. The

(''Mesa de la Unidad Democrática'', MUD), created in 2008, unites much of the opposition.

, the central figure of the Venezuelan political landscape since 1998, died in office in early 2013, and was succeeded by

(initially as interim President, before narrowly winning the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election).

Polling procedure

Since 1998 elections in Venezuela have become more automated, and administered by the National Electoral Council, with poll workers drafted via a lottery of registered voters. Polling places are equipped with multiple

s, one per ''"mesa electoral"'', or voting "table". After the vote is cast, each machine prints out a paper ballot, or VVPAT, which is inspected by the voter and deposited in a ballot box belonging to the machine's table. The voting machines perform in a stand-alone fashion, disconnected from any network until the polls close.''Consejo Nacional Electoral'
Manual Operativo para Miembros, Secretaria o Secretario de Mesa Electoral
. Retrieved 28 November 2006 Voting session closure at each of the voting stations in a given polling center is determined either by the lack of further voters after the lines have emptied, or by the hour, at the discretion of the president of the voting table. Voters register fingerprints and identity card details onto the Electoral Register, and these are verified during the voting process. Voters sign a register to confirm that they have voted, and have a finger marked with election ink. In March 2018,

Smartmatic Smartmatic (also referred as Smartmatic Corp. or Smartmatic International), or Smartmatic SGO Group, is a multinational company that builds and implements electronic voting systems. The company also produces smart cities solutions (including ...

, the British electoral products company (now ''SGO Corporation'') which had participated in the majority of elections under the Bolivarian government, ceased operations in Venezuela, stating that they could no longer guarantee the validity of election results through its machines.

Tally scrutinization

After the polls close at any voting table, the following steps are carried out: *The

is ordered to close the voting session. *Tally scrutinization announced. *Each voting machine prints an original tally sheet, each has a voter total and the number of votes cast for each candidate cast in that particular machine/table. *Each voting machine is connected to the network and the results are sent to the vote counting center. *Nine extra tally sheets are printed and distributed to the staff and the six representatives of the candidates that received the most votes. *With the original tally sheet in hand the total number of votes cast is compared to the signed up sheet or electoral notebook. Finally, for those machines chosen for the audit (see below) the electoral ballots, or paper trails, are counted one by one to determine if they add up to the totals in the tally sheet. Any anomaly is mentioned in the tally sheet report, signed by the staff and auditors, and then sealed and given to the military for delivery to the CNE.

Random paper ballot audit

Once the tally scrutinization is complete the staff proceeds to perform a random paper ballot audit of 54.31% of the machines. Each voting center can have anywhere from one to twelve voting machines, occasionally up to fifteen. The staff randomly selects the tables/machines by drawing a number out of a paper hat. The size of the draw is dependent on the number of tables/machines. The following procedures occur step by step: * Polls are closed * Tally scrutinization finishes * Random paper ballot audit announced * The machines are randomly selected drawing numbers out of a paper hat * The machine's serial number is recorded * The corresponding paper ballot box is selected and opened * The paper ballots results for each candidate are openly counted * With the original tally printed from the electronic results, both results are audited * Any anomaly (even if by one vote) is recorded in the audit report * The original audit report is signed by staff and observers, officially sealed and handed to the military for delivery to the CNE * Copies are handed over to the representatives of the two highest vote getters.

Parliamentary elections

Parliamentary voting system

Elections for the

National Assembly of Venezuela The National Assembly () is the federal legislature of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which was first elected in 2000 under the 1999 constitution. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by a ...

in the

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and the

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

were conducted under a weak

mixed member proportional Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a type of representation provided by some mixed electoral systems which combine local winner-take-all elections with a compensatory tier with party lists, in a way that produces p ...

system, with 60% elected in

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

voting districts and the remainder by closed

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

Venezuela (Presidential)
accessed 27 September 2010 This was an adaptation of the system previously used for the

Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies () was the lower house of Venezuela's legislative under its 1961 constitution; the Venezuelan Senate was the upper house. Under the 1999 constitution, the bicameral system was replaced by the unicameral National Assembly ...

, which had been introduced in 1993, with a 50–50 balance between voting districts and party lists,Crisp, Brian F. and Rey, Juan Carlos (2003), "The Sources of Electoral Reform in Venezuela", in Shugart, Matthew Soberg, and Martin P. Wattenberg, ''Mixed-Member Electoral Systems – The Best of Both Worlds?'', Oxford:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2003. pp. 173–194(22) and deputies per state proportional to population, but with a minimum of three deputies per state. For the 2010 election, the ''Ley Orgánica de Procesos Electorales (LOPE)'' (Basic Law of Electoral Process) among other changes reduced the party list proportion to 30%. In addition, the law completely separated the district vote and the party list votes, creating a

parallel voting In political science, parallel voting or superposition refers to the use of two or more Electoral system, electoral systems to elect different members of a legislature. More precisely, an electoral system is a superposition if it is a mixture o ...

system. Previously, parties winning nominal district seats had had these subtracted from the total won under the proportional party list. Under the new law, in 2009, electoral districts were redefined in a way that has been accused of favouring the PSUV, particularly in giving more weight to votes in the countryside over those in the city.Romero, Simon. ''The New York Times'', 26 September 2010.
"Venezuelans Vote for Legislators".
/ref>''Latin American Herald Tribune'', 27 September 2010
"In Venezuela, Opposition Wins Vote Total, but Chavez Still Dominates Parliament".

Presidential elections

There are regular presidential elections in Venezuela. The

is elected for a six-year term by

, and is eligible for unlimited re-election. One of the first "honest" presidential elections in Venezuela was held in 1947, with

of Democratic Action receiving 74.3% of the vote. The next elections were held in 1958 and won by

Rómulo Betancourt Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (22 February 1908 – 28 September 1981; ), known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was a Venezuelan politician who served as the president of Venezuela, from and again from Second presidency of Rómulo ...

of Democratic Action, who received 49.2% of the vote. With voter turnout reported to be 92.3%, in the 1963 presidential elections Raúl Leoni of Democratic Action won with 32.8% of the vote. In the subsequent 1968 elections, Rafael Caldera of Copei (the Social Christian Party of Venezuela) won with 29.1% of the vote, although Democratic Action remained the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate.Nohlen, p556 The following elections the presidential seat returned to Democratic Action, with

receiving 48.7% of the voteNohlen, p581 in a voter turnout of 96.5%. The

1978 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1978. Africa * 1978 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1978 Comorian legislative election * 1978 Comorian presidential election * 1978 Egyptian protection of national unity and social peace referend ...

were won by Luis Herrera Campins of Copei with 46.6% of the vote.

Jaime Lusinchi Jaime Ramón Lusinchi (27 May 1924 – 21 May 2014) was the president of Venezuela from 1984 to 1989. His term was characterized by an economic crisis, growth of the external debt, populist policies, currency depreciation, inflation and corrupt ...

of Democratic Action won with 58.4% of the vote in 1983,Nohlen, p582 with voter turnout at 87.3%. Carlos Andrés Pérez won a second time in 1988 with 52.9% of the vote, and a voter turnout of 81.9% in the presidential election. Former president Rafael Caldera, newly associated with National Convergence, won with 30.5% of the vote in 1993. The voter turnout in 1993 was 60.2%, the lowest since

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After being imprisoned for an attempted coup and then pardoned by Caldera,

founded the

and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998. He was re-elected in 2000. A recall referendum in 2004 was voted on by the populace to determine whether Chávez should be recalled from office, resulting in no recall (58% no). The authenticity of the results became a point of contention.Weisbrot M, Rosnick D, Tucker T (20 September 2004)
Black Swans, Conspiracy Theories, and the Quixotic Search for Fraud: A Look at Hausmann and Rigobón's Analysis of Venezuela's Referendum Vote
. ''CEPR: Center for Economic and Policy Research''. Retrieved 7 July 2012.Maria M. Febres Cordero, Bernardo Márquez (2006)
"A Statistical Approach to Assess Referendum Results: the Venezuelan Recall Referendum 2004"
''International Statistical Review'', 74(3)Special Section: Revisiting the 2004 Venezuelan Referendum
, ''Statistical Science'', 26(4), November 2011 Chavez was reelected in 2006 with over 60% of the votes, and in 2009 a constitutional referendum resulted in the abolishment of

s for the offices of President of Venezuela. Since 1999 there had been a two-term limit. Chavez was reelected for a third term in the October 2012 presidential election. Nicolas Maduro won the 2013 presidential election and was reelected in 2018.

Regional and local elections

Venezuela is a federal state; Venezuelan states have governors, which have been elected since 1989 (previously they were appointed by the President). Regional and local elections were introduced following the work in the 1980s of the Commission for the Reform of the State (''Comisión para la Reforma del Estado'', COPRE). .

Latest elections

Most recent elections: * parliamentary: 2020 Venezuelan parliamentary election * regional: 2021 Venezuelan regional elections * presidential: 2024 Venezuelan presidential election * constituent assembly:

References

External links

Adam Carr's Election ArchiveInteractive Map of Past Elections in Venezuela
{{Venezuela topics