Editing Elections in Venezuela (section)

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{See also|Politics of Venezuela}}
{{Politics of Venezuela}}
'''Elections in Venezuela''' are held at a national level for the President of [[Venezuela]] as [[head of state]] and [[head of government]], and for a [[unicameralism|unicameral]] [[legislature]]. The [[President of Venezuela]] is elected for a six-year term by [[direct election]] [[plurality voting system|plurality voting]], and is eligible for re-election. The [[National Assembly of Venezuela|National Assembly]] ''(Asamblea Nacional)'' has 277 members ''(diputados)'', elected for five-year terms using a [[mixed-member majoritarian representation]] system. Elections also take place at [[States of Venezuela|state level]] and local level.

Since 1998, elections in Venezuela have been automated (using [[Touchscreen|touch-screen]] [[DRE voting machine]]s which provide a [[Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail]]), and administered by the [[National Electoral Council (Venezuela)|National Electoral Council]]. The [[voting age]] is 18, and (as of 2011) 95% of eligible voters are legally registered.

Prior to the early 1990s, Venezuela was considered an unusually long-standing and stable [[liberal democracy]] in Latin America, having transitioned to democracy in 1958.<ref name=":53">{{Citation |title="Chávez Vete Ya": The Erosion of Democracy in Venezuela |date=2022 |work=Resisting Backsliding: Opposition Strategies against the Erosion of Democracy |pages=98–128 |editor-last=Gamboa |editor-first=Laura |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/resisting-backsliding/chavez-vete-ya-the-erosion-of-democracy-in-venezuela/8A32EBE5784D74ACEFE274F8BD12CC70 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781009164085.004 |isbn=978-1-009-16408-5 |quote=Up until the 1990s, Venezuela was one of the longest-running and most stable uninterrupted liberal democracies in Latin America. Today, it is an authoritarian regime. In nineteen years, Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, managed to destroy the system of checks and balances, end free and fair elections, and terminate political rights and civil liberties. The government has delayed and canceled elections, circumvented the authority of the elected legislature, imprisoned political opponents without trial, used lethal force against protesters, and banned opposition parties.|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":62">{{Citation |last=Roberts |first=Kenneth M. |title=Populism and democracy in Venezuela under Hugo Chávez |date=2012 |work=Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat or Corrective for Democracy? |pages=136–159 |editor-last=Mudde |editor-first=Cas |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/populism-in-europe-and-the-americas/populism-and-democracy-in-venezuela-under-hugo-chavez/FA3183273C9744A9A70FE4EBF71EB826 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9781139152365.008 |isbn=978-1-107-02385-7 |editor2-last=Rovira Kaltwasser |editor2-first=Cristóbal|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":83">{{Cite journal |last=Mainwaring |first=Scott |date=2012 |title=From Representative Democracy to Participatory Competitive Authoritarianism: Hugo Chávez and Venezuelan Politics |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/from-representative-democracy-to-participatory-competitive-authoritarianism-hugo-chavez-and-venezuelan-politics/C6BD75833B90AA310B02A6EEF29BA10E |journal=Perspectives on Politics |language=en |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=955–967 |doi=10.1017/S1537592712002629 |issn=1537-5927|url-access=subscription }}</ref> After the victory of socialist populist [[Hugo Chávez]] in the [[1998 Venezuelan presidential election|1998 presidential election]], Venezuela gradually underwent [[democratic backsliding]] before transitioning to an authoritarian system of government where political and civil rights are not protected, and elections are not free and fair.<ref>{{Citation |title=Democratic Erosion in Venezuela, Representative Democracy in Brazil |date=2017 |work=State Crisis in Fragile Democracies: Polarization and Political Regimes in South America |pages=136–172 |editor-last=Handlin |editor-first=Samuel |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/state-crisis-in-fragile-democracies/democratic-erosion-in-venezuela-representative-democracy-in-brazil/8B5F1378F6A56DC11B68153BDDBC18D2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781108233682.005 |isbn=978-1-108-41542-2|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":53" /><ref name=":83" /><ref name=":92">{{Cite web |last=Corrales |first=Javier |date=2015 |title=The Authoritarian Resurgence: Autocratic Legalism in Venezuela |url=https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-authoritarian-resurgence-autocratic-legalism-in-venezuela/ |website=Journal of Democracy |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Boersner |first=Adriana |date=2021 |title=The Path Toward Authoritarianism in Venezuela |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199756223/obo-9780199756223-0286.xml |website=Oxford Bibliographies |language=en}}</ref> Under Chávez's rule and later under the rule of his successor [[Nicolás Maduro]], power has been concentrated in the hands of the executive, institutional checks and balances have been undermined, independent media have been repressed, and opposition forces have been marginalized in governing institutions, such as congress, courts, oversight agencies, the state-owned petroleum company (PDVSA), and the military.<ref name=":53" /><ref name=":62" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brewer-Carías |first=Allan R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2m9-gYOs9K4C |title=Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela: The Chávez Authoritarian Experiment |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49235-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":92" />

Politics are polarized between supporters of [[President of Venezuela|President]] Nicolás Maduro, organized as the [[United Socialist Party of Venezuela|United Socialist Party]] (PSUV) and the [[Great Patriotic Pole]], and several opposition parties. Opposition parties and opposition candidates have regularly been banned from contesting elections.<ref name=":53" /> At other times, opposition parties have boycotted national elections, citing their undemocratic nature.<ref name=":53" /> Venezuela was ranked the third least electoral [[democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean]] according to [[V-Dem Democracy indices]] in 2023 with a score of 0.214 out of one.<ref name="vdem_dataset">{{cite web |last=V-Dem Institute |date=2023 |title=The V-Dem Dataset |url=https://www.v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/ |access-date=14 October 2023}}</ref><ref name="vdem report">[https://www.v-dem.net/documents/29/V-dem_democracyreport2023_lowres.pdf Democracy Report 2023, Table 3, V-Dem Institute, 2023]</ref>