Venezuela's elections promised to be difficult, no matter the outcome. Anyone expecting quiet acquiescence of the people to the rise to power of Chavez's chosen successor was deluding himself.
Notwithstanding the obviously widespread support for anything chavista, Maduro's narrow win in the recent election underline the instability of a chavista regime on the stamp of the Cuban dictatorship.
Riots erupted soon after the election when news appeared of a possible rigged election. Maduro immediately proposed a recount.
But only a handful of days after the elections, which has caused nine deaths in the clashes that have flared up here and there since the results, Maduro is now backtracking on his promise of recalculating the votes and is distancing himself from offering information on the elections, which he won with such a narrow margin, many immediately cried foul.
His opponent, Henrique Capriles is pushing hard for a recount, insisting that it was he who had been duly elected and not Maduro.
However, the elections results have already been certified, leaving little hope of subverting the newly elected government.
What is obvious in this volte-face is that Maduro feels secure after the certification, even though the board of elections is made up of 5 members, 4 of whom are aligned with the Chavistas. The board of elections too insisted they would not support a recount.
By Monday, the Maduro government was saturating the airways with programs that talked about the goodness and fairness of Venezuela's election system. He then added that his opponents were trying to create the premise for a golpe.
Capriles however is not conceding, and drew up a list of what appear to be 3,200 documented violations of the voting process. He insisted that the recount was essential to protect the rights of the people, who are rising up against a government that has not been elected lawfully.
However, with Maduro firmly in power at the palace and with the entrenched system created by his predecessor, there is very little hope that the election challenge will come to anything.
Source: WashPost. 4.16.13
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