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Sunday, February 12, 2012

The primary day post

12:31 AM next day

The day ended in near disaster.  I was stuck in traffic at La Victoria while these asshole chavistas exited in a complete chaos the premises.  There my battery cell phone run low so I had to keep it for phone calls.

Then there was a multiple car crash at the Caracas entry in Tazon and I staid there almost 3 hours, running out of gas almost.  I had to save the last fumes by going down all the hill in neutral, engine off.  By the time I heard Perez excellent concession speech I had enough of it all and turned off the radio.

These episodes today deserve a post on their own with the details that show how degraded a country we live in.

So no analysis tonight, I just heard some news while I ate a cold slice of pizza arriving home, left who knows when.  I may just finish me off through food poisoning....

1:45 PM


DO NOT BELIEVE ANY EXIT POLL OR WHATEVER!  There is no need for them, no one has money for them, they are extremely casual at best.  I am sure that some polling of sorts exist but it has to do more with motivation and market research more than actual winners.  Most parties have people at their tables and the atmosphere is friendly and good overall.  There is simply no need to invest in an expensive, unreliable and useless poll.  This because I already see creeps giving results!  There are none.  Period.  Do not believe any journalists, not even Ocando in Miami and perhaps him the last as who knows who is feeding him data.





1:33 PM

After many troubles including a broken key requiring locksmith work on a Sunday AM I managed to vote.  Did some tweetering from there.  Lines were longer and getting longer with three hours left to vote.  And the excellent news is that at my voting center, a fiefdom of opposition, almost half of the people had already voted. I think that we are truly in our way to pass the 2 million mark and seen other less opposition centers in San Felipe with long lines too I think we could well reach a 2.5 million score which would be fantastic!!!!


And the regime knows it.  It has put pressure on Venevision and Televen, the lone remaining private national networks NOT to cover the primaries, only Globovision does.  Instead they are covering completely Chavez speech from La Victoria as if it were a cadena.....  Of course Chavez will not dare call for a cadena today with all the foreign visitors in town.  Cadenas are only for our private times between us and our wannabe dictator, when nobody is watching.  So I am in fact glad because it proves to us what a resounding success these primaries are so far.  Until the hardest part comes when all rally around the winner tonight, hopefully....

And now I am off to Caracas.  Follow me on twitter for the next 4-5 hours at least.

9:57AM

Even though my two most visited posts were "election day posts" I will have to pass today.  For a variety of reasons I will be leaving for Caracas shortly after voting in the next hour or so.  In what will be at least a 4 hours drive I doubt very much that I can open my lap top anywhere. So why pretend?  Instead I will be live tweeting the whole thing at @danielduquenal if you wish to follow (follow me for today only, I will not be upset if you un-follow me tomorrow).  After all, I will be driving by where chavismo is doing its counter show at La Victoria where they even hired all sorts of musical groups to take out of their followers mind any idea of going to vote .  Who knows, maybe some twit pic will come out of it.  Also when I arrive in Caracas I may be able to hang out in some of the head quarters waiting for the results and there only twitter has a chance to work.


This being said, if I arrive too tired in Caracas, or my contacts do not come through, I will retake this post after 3-4 PM to blog live results and reactions.  So let's call this the first entry at 9:57 AM.

Meanwhile, I am glad to report that as seen on TV all seems to work out, there is no trouble worth reporting and that modest to decent lines are observed in many polling stations.  Also the overseas voting seem to be in general a success.  Something that for sure will strengthen the CNE resolve to make it as difficult as possible the registration of people overseas for October.

See you shortly if I can vote fast and furious, and gain a few minutes to report on Yaracuy voting.

17 comments:

  1. Thank you Daniel. I'll be following.

    ReplyDelete
  2. YA VOTE! A little more than a hour, but the thing went smoothly.

    Heavy turnout in East Barquisimeto. Not surprising, we’re the Chacao of Lara.

    Have a nice trip. Heavy traffic around La Victoria. I'll follow you tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Boludo Tejano12:55 AM

    ...modest to decent lines are observed in many polling stations...

    I suppose that is better than immodest and indecent lines. :)

    From what I have read, Thugo would consider the turnout figures to be immodest and indecently high- thus censoring the turnout figures would from his point of view be a very moral thing to do. One would not want the populace exposed to something immoral and indecent, no?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous2:15 AM

    Daniel,

    To give you a idea of turnout in two voting centers in Prados del Este – Baruta area:

    Cuaderno de Votacion no. 1, 3 mesas, 6 /15 persons had voted on 2:30 pm
    Cuaderno de votacion no. 2 (diifferent voting center) 3 mesas with 900+ persons each, 14/15 persons at 4:40 pm. Best I have ever seen at noon in this last center is around 4 – 6 / 15.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Milonga3:51 AM

    I suppose you're celebrating. A three-million turnout is better than your wildest dreams, right? Congratulations!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous4:08 AM

    On BBC News reporting on the primaries: 'Mr Chavez has dismissed all the candidates as representatives of US "imperialism" who would dismantle his socialist reforms.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Mr Chavez has dismissed all the candidates as representatives of US "imperialism" who would dismantle his socialist reforms." YOU DON'T SAY?

      Delete
  7. hahaha! In his dreams.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous6:23 AM

    Fué un día muy bello, toda la gente alegre y muchisima cola para votar, que bueno, donde voto hubo en la mañana muchos tercera edad y hasta cuarta, en la tarde fueron muchisimos jóvenes. Ganamos todos, Viva nuestros candidatos y felicitaciones a todos por su nobleza! Esto nos cambia de lo habitual. La Maga Lee

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm sorry about what happened to you. All that mess in La Victoria for a crappy act (No concert!) and the praise of Boves (WTF?). But Venezuela had an amazing day, for more than 3 million reasons. Capriles won fair and square. All other candidates joined him in the end. Unity is complete.

    By the look of Mario and Amorin, we can see how bad Chavez is feeling. These 7 months will be one epic experience.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous1:09 PM

    Sorry to read about your ordeal i hope you are ok from eating that pizza.
    From living in Los Teques and having to suffer the Panamerican road i can only give some advises for the ARC. Both roads can very very nasty when using them to get anywhere on a normal basis. Worsened by yesterday chavistas´activities on La Victoria.
    You are a twitter user follow victoria1039fm, eutrafico, trafficmiranda, trafficaragua, etc to receive warnings or at least some information over the road status. With that you can decide to start or no the journey, or consider a detour (not an alternative yesterday).
    Modern phones boast about having huge capacity batteries. Sad reality that you start using your phone capabilities like surfing the web or GPS and those "huge capacities" show themselves as tiny lasting less than twelve hours. Buy an extra battery or a car charger.
    I guess that after spending hours in a supposedly short trip you were upset, anxious to get to Caracas and dismissed filling up your gas tank in the few kilometers remaining. Half tank is not good in ARC when something happens.
    Looking forward to read again from you soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. well, maybe. but when you start from san felipe the news on the arc may be excellent and by the time you pass valencia you are in hell.... only when i am going the other way do i have the luxury to inquire before hand.

      Delete
  11. Juan Cristóbal1:48 PM

    Daniel,
    Now I know what to get you for Christmas: a phone charger for your car!
    Looking forward to read your analysis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. that is very nice of you, except that I also was running out of gas so I had my engine off and thus a charger woudl not have been very useful.....

      what? me, bitter?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:25 PM

      Bitter indeed \o/
      A car charger for a cell phone doesn´t need the car engine to be running in order to charge your cell phone. It draws very little current. A laptop and an inverter on the other hand, are a different story.
      Still waiting for your analysis of yesterday journey into Venezuela's hell known as autopistas. The last piece of advise i could give is more of an inconvenience. To carry an extra can of gas like rustiqueros do. If we get to that point them is time to start thinking like in apocalyptic movies

      Delete
  12. :-(
    I'm sorry about the day you had Daniel. I hope that pizza didn't cause any more damage.
    I made empanadas to celebrate my "venezolanidad". They were awesome, just like those from El Palito (or how they used to be, don't know now).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous3:42 AM

    Daniel,

    Some cars have the cigarette lighter with voltage even though the ignition switch is off. Check yours. Or you can buy a solar battery charger, at the Centro Lido Movilnet Canter they offered them at 200 - 300 Bsf.

    If you dont have twitter access send a text message to 1039 with the words ARC this is a service by Victoria FM.

    Always carry a bottle of mineral water

    Good Luck !

    ReplyDelete

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