VenEconomy: Silence Means Consent 
 From the Editors of VenEconomy
Latin American Herald Tribune
May 5, 2015

According to the international rules of diplomacy, not defending a country’s sovereign rights is to let the adversary win, meaning that "silence is consent."

These international rules should apply to Venezuela’s electoral sphere, particularly to the leadership of the democratic opposition that makes up the Democratic Unity (or MUD) party. This suggestion is valid at a time when new parliamentary elections, considered of vital importance to face the dictatorial regime imposed in Venezuela, are to be held this year.

As is well known, the Bolivarian revolution has increased its dominance over the nation’s public authorities, including the National Electoral Council (CNE), over the past 16 years.

A body in which the predominance of the political bias of the ruling party not only mandated reforms in the legislation, thus changing the form and substance of the Electoral System, but it has also allowed the elimination of electoral guarantees apart from the countless manipulations, abuses of power, misappropriations of public resources for the benefit of the ruling party, so that it can remain in power until 2020 and beyond.

In favor of this aspiration is the certainty that a low turnout in the elections will affect the opposition most, since a lower participation of voters may result in lower public pressure and a greater possibility of the Government playing dirty.

With this certainty, the Government is acting accordingly with silence, omissions and carrying out tests in order to measure forces and generate suspicion, which is designed to dissuade voters away from the ballot box.

That same certainty about how harmful abstention is for Venezuela’s democratic choice has led the leadership of the MUD to maintain a very low profile on a policy to denounce all these machinations and dirty tricks of the Government. A silence that many analysts and political leaders deem a serious mistake.

Put another way, once the vote is cast, there is nothing that the CNE can do to change it. That is why both the CNE and the Government are hoping that opposition supporters stay home on Election Day. And that is why the MUD must do everything in its power to encourage participation in the election.

This is the case, for example, of former opposition lawmaker María Corina Machado who has been reporting them and still maintains a critical attitude towards the electoral outrages of the Government since her days as head of non-governmental organization Súmate. One of her latest allegations is a warning on the intentions of the CNE to eliminate the physical voting centers’ registries so they can be replaced for electronic devices. This is a procedure that would be tested during the primary elections that the MUD will hold on May 17, to then impose it during the parliamentary elections later this year.

Machado described this approach as perverse and unacceptable, given that this would remove the only control witnesses currently have to prevent the number of voters from being altered.

As Machado pointed out, there can be no delay in "defending the truth with the truth, in calling things by their name and in warning about the traps and frauds they are up to."

Also true is her remark that "denouncing the CNE will not demobilize the people, nor will cause abstention; on the contrary, it will awaken the necessary fighting spirit so the majority is recognized."

Today, most opinion polls have shown that the electoral winds are blowing in favor of the democratic proposal. That’s good news, on one hand. The bad news is that the Government will do whatever it takes during the parliamentary elections to ensure the survival of its political project. That’s why, as never before, it has become imperative to apply all kinds of citizen and international pressure to stop it from getting away with it.

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