December 2013 election day post

10:27 PM

I think that I need to close this election day post now. All is quiet and analysis start. However I will leave you with food for thought:

Tibisay's lecture even for those who boycotted it like I did, reeks of massaging the corpse. That is, the CNE seems, to me anyway, to have picked up the most favorable results to chavismo and presented only those, leaving for us to add it up later the less favorable and truly evaluate what happened today.  When all is said and done, we can also observe that the obscene advantage of the regime and its lack of scruples in breaking commerce and shop owners for electoral purposes has paid off in part, in particular in Caracas where Ledezma victory seems weaker than what it was a month ago.

10:16 PM

Details:

Opposition takes back Valencia (no surprise) but fails in Maracay (not unsurprising since the natural candidate Mardo was barred).
Barquisimeto to MUD, great victory.
Barinas, of Chavezlandia goes opposition, major insult!!!!!
Maracaibo and Caracas at large are retained (as it should have been).

More later.



10:09

The insufferable Tibisay Lucena of the CNE finally gives her results. The "her is intended. I refuse to listen to her nasty pitch, I will transcribe next what Twitter gives me. To others to suffer through her sanctimonious wake.

59% participation
Of the "irreversible" districts the PSUV wins in votes and in number: 196 to 54 and 4,58 to 4,25 million votes

But we need still to know all districts....


9:47 PM

Sorry for the delay. Phone and diner.

Well, CNE is, as usual, holding the results until they can massage them some. I was told that in Barquisimeto the opposition won but the regime refuses to accept. that may be also the case in a couple of very symbolic districts.

On twitter all sorts of results but how can we confirm? I suppose we can trust that in Tachira and Nueva Esparta the opposition did rather well.  And there is no need to celebrate shit on Chacao, Baruta and Sucre: the opposition was supposed to win and only when we will know the margin of victory we may be able to celebrate truly. That is the number, not whether the asshole clowns chavismo sent to the scaffold did bite the dust.


7:57 PM

I am told that Barquismeto may go a much as 10 points for the opposition on preliminary counting. I am also told that we are taking some small but telling country side districts but I am not allowed to name them yet. And Guerra tweets that Rio Caribe, OMG, went opposition! It is his hometown, you know....

Me informan que la MUD ganó en Rió Caribe. Se acabo el yugo
— Jose Guerra (@JoseAGuerra) December 9, 2013

7:42 PM

CNE has announced that there will be no results for at least two more hours. So I am going to get my diner, but letting you know that it looks good for a few cities already as results are seeping.


7:36  PM

I am hearing plenty of fireworks in San Felipe and they are not coming from the PSUV party house nor chavista areas. Has my candidate won?


7:29 PM

Twitter is abuzz of voting centers that have no voters inline and still do not close up. this while more than 60% of centers have already sent in their results!!!! This is how they killed Capriles last April, filling in the blanks with pantomime voters.

6:48 PM

The regime has sent out its fleet of bikers to create some turmoil. You know, the same ones that had no problem looting a truck over the dead body of its driver...  Meanwhile the usual long wait starts for what is sold to us as the best electoral system in the world.


6:05 PM

The CNE should close voting now in all centers where there is no line to vote. Counting should start. But as usual, the CNE is mute, giving the regime the chance to ferry in folks AFTER the legal time of 6 PM! Then again pictures keep appearing of chavistas in full campaign today....


5:50 PM

Opposition optimist? Aveledo claims that the bring in the vote operation has worked well for the opposition (there are many lines now which were absent this morning) and that participation may reach 60% after all. If this is true then not only the opposition may do better than expected but there might be a je ne sais quoi of plebiscite feel in the air...

Aveledo: "Hay tendencia a acercarnos en participación electoral a un 60%" #8D
— ElUniversal Política (@EUPolitica) December 8, 2013

Aveledo: "Quienes están en su cola, no se muevan de su centro. La operación avalancha ha funcionado muy bien" #8D
— ElUniversal Política (@EUPolitica) December 8, 2013

5:42 PM

Those who can read Spanish can follow @EUpolitica for a blow by blow twitting of the day.  Includes people of government abuse, people who at 3 PM could not yet vote as machines did not work out, etc....

5:26 PM

I can confirm that chavista centers do not have a big turnout and the red machine is not working well. OK, I cannot really confirm it all but I have 4 in 4 different centers of Caracas and Lara and all agree that turnout is way lower than expected. Also in Lara the opposition thinks it has a shot at Carora based on their turnout observations. Apparently Barquisimeto will go opposition.


4:45 PM

I forgot to mention that when I voted, around 3:20 PM, more than half my "mesa" had voted, which is less than presidential vote but getting more than average to good turnout.

Apparently many opposition centers are suddenly filling up, as seen on twitter or people I called. But no info as to chavista centers filling up though Cabello went on TV to ask his voters to move their butts.

4:26 PM

A quick scan of the news I missed and I read that:

• Chavismo has been campaigning today as if nothing, from sound trucks driving around to open propaganda in the radio
• When Capriles started complaining on TV, the private networks quickly took him off the air. Of course, Capriles nor anyone from the opposition gets any time on the air at state networks...
• The CNE has been taken into account by the MUD folks in charge and we get the silence of the lambs.

Clearly, a regime that so nakedly breaks the laws, that so nakedly exerts censorship is running scared.  But after so many crimes so many years, why should they care at this point?


4:08 PM

I am in San Felipe and I am all voted up.

It was a blissful ride on a beautiful day (it rained yesterday and we had that wonderful luminosity of cooler days that free us from the humidity haze).

Since the drive takes me through some pro Chavez districts I could observe that the "puntos rojos" (red tents promoting chavismo at tax payer expense) were rather forlorn.  When active it was full of red shirts and motor bikes, clearly preparing some herding of the chavista voter.  All around abstention was rather high around noon, last time I could check.  But of course that is not meaningful about the final results as on both side the "bring in the vote" was about to start.  Still, we can already draw a first conclusion, from a tweet that I posted at some burger King / Arepera along the road where miraculously I had 3G connection:

We can say that: 1) plebiscite look of election is a bust 2) Chavismo may herd its voters late but Maduro has failed to motivate them.
— daniel duquenal (@danielduquenal) December 8, 2013

Still, an observation. My voting center is probably the most anti Chavez of Yaracuy and yet the last two elections we had a "punto rojo". This time around they did not bother....

9:22 AM

OK, so I am starting it just before I take the road to San Felipe and vote.  If all goes well I may be back posting around 4 PM.  Meanwhile I leave you with the last 5 posts meant to be companions to understand some of the reasons for the things going on today: read and comment away, I am suspending for today the restrictions on comments. If you are in Venezuela and vote, please report here anything you deem worthy. But be warmed that idiotic comments and their replies will be ruthlessly erased if needed.  If I see anything or hear anything interesting while I drive I will use @danielduquenal to report from some rest area.