Venezuela accuses US of role in election boycott (AP) Updated: 2005-12-01 11:50
Venezuela accused the U.S. government of trying to destabilize the country by
supporting an opposition boycott of the weekend's congressional elections.
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel alleged that the U.S. Embassy had links to
moves by several opposition parties to pull out of Sunday's elections, a claim
denied by American officials.
"We're headed toward an electoral strike of a subversive character," Rangel
said Wednesday. "We have sufficient intelligence and enough information
suggesting that behind the card of not participating there are aims of
destabilizing the country."
"Behind it all, the U.S. Embassy has been very active, extremely active,"
Rangel said, accusing the United States of repeatedly interfering in Venezuela's
affairs to try to sabotage President Hugo Chavez's government.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Brian Penn denied it.
"We do not have anything to do with any of the actions of the political
parties," Penn said, echoing recent comments by U.S. Ambassador William
Brownfield that "the United States is simply not responsible for everything that
occurs in Venezuela."
Five opposition parties had officially withdrawn from Sunday's elections,
according to Jorge Rodriguez, head of the National Electoral Council, including
the largest, Democratic Action, with 23 seats, saying conditions were biased
toward Chavez's allies. The most recent party to pull out, First Justice, made
it's announcement late Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Social Christian Party, or Copei, has threatened to boycott if
the vote isn't postponed to ensure fairness.
Rangel said the election date "won't be moved even one minute," and called
the boycotting politicians "coup-plotters and terrorists."
"They're withdrawing now because they don't have votes," Rangel said.
He said that internal government polls projected that only 20 to 30 seats in
the 167-member National Assembly would have gone to the opposition. He didn't
say how or when the polls were conducted.
Some smaller opposition parties, however, were resisting calls to boycott the
elections, saying defecting only played into Chavez's hand.
"The best way we can resist at this moment is to participate in the process,"
Andres Velasquez, leader of Cause R, told Union Radio.
Directors of the private polling firm Keller and Hinterlaces indicated
Wednesday that the withdrawals could push abstention at Sunday's polls to above
70 percent.
The deep rifts appeared to assure pro-Chavez candidates of even greater
control of the National Assembly.
Leopoldo Puchi, leader of the small anti-Chavez party Movement toward
Socialism, called the boycott a "political error."
Pro-Chavez leaders have said they hope for a two-thirds majority that would
help them pass constitutional reforms to deepen the president's socialist
"revolution" for the poor. They also say they plan to do away with term limits,
a change that would allow Chavez to stay on as president beyond 2012 _ the
current limit if he is re-elected next December.
Copei party leader Cesar Perez said his group hoped the electoral council
would delay the vote to resolve problems with the computer voting system.
If the vote is not put off, he said, all but one of the party's 32 candidates
have agreed to pull out. The party now has six seats in congress.
Electoral Council head Rodriguez said Wednesday that the vote would go ahead
as planned.
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