May 20, 2018
Many years of broken laws and rights have led to today. Democracy is gone in Venezuela and today's presidential elections are just another of the many frauds of the current "socialist" regime. Let's examine the many reasons why today's elections are a rigged political fraud.
The elections were convened by an illegal branch of the government (the ANC)
The Asamblea Nacional Constituyente (Constituent Assembly) is a branch that was illegally elected in 2017. Why illegally? While a Constituent Assembly could be elected in order to rewrite the constitution, it is established in the constitution and in our country's laws that there must be a previous election where people have the right to decide whether or not they want such a branch.
Instead, the government, led by Nicolas Maduro, decided to skip the first election step and went directly into the step of electing which people would be members of the ANC. Apart from that, those elections (illegally convened) were very shady and were already rigged. Read more (in Spanish) about why it's illegal here and why it was rigged here
Most opposition candidates were banned from participating in today's elections
Through the years, the Venezuelan government has been progressively barring politicians from participating as candidates in the various elections in the country.
Venezuelan hardliner María Corina Machado barred from public office
Opposition leaders Lopez and Ledezma sent to jail
For today's presidential election, most possible opposition candidates (that were not already jailed or barred) were barred from presenting themselves as presidential candidates. Not only were most possible opposition candidates barred, but most opposition parties were barred too. In fact, the biggest opposition coalition in the country, the MUD, was also barred.
How can we have fair elections when we can only choose from a pre-chosen bunch of corrupt-government-approved politicians?
Nicolas Maduro (current president) is not legally allowed to be president or to take part in today's elections.
The National Assembly, which is the legally elected Legislative Branch in Venezuela, determined on April 17 that there is enough reason to take Nicolas Maduro to court due to his many instances of corruption.
This decision legally binds the president to step down from the presidency and bars him from taking part in the May 20 elections. (Read more in Spanish)
Pro-government campaigning and urging beside voting centres
In Venezuela, it is illegal to campaign on the same day of the elections. It is also extra illegal to set up campaigning material (and even worse, to conduct campaign) beside the voting centres.
The government has set up what is called "puntos rojos" beside the voting centre where voters are urged to demonstrate that they voted today in order to get a government bonus of 10 million bolivars (10 minimum monthly salaries, or around 13 USD). Additionally, they phrase the urging in a way that makes voters think that they must vote for PSUV (socialist party currently in power) in order to get this money.
The existence of these "puntos rojos" is not only illegal by itself, but having them at close proximity to the voting centres is a big aggravating factor.
Smartmatic blew the whistle on 2017 election fraud, so the government fired Smartmatic and hired a new voting company
Venezuela has been praised over the years for its impregnable voting system. Many Venezuelans proudly boasted this fact. In 2017, however, the company that made this possible, Smartmatic, blew the whistle after the Constituent Assembly elections. They said that things were not being handled properly and that there was probably fraud in the elections.
What would be the proper solution? Revise the methods, redo the elections (which were illegally convened, as I explained earlier), etc.
What did the government do? They fired Smartmatic and hired a new voting company to handle the electoral system, the voting machines, the counting and auditing.