Venezuela is Voting Today

My hope is that Venezuela will not be destabilized after this election.  My worries about destabilization arise from  several factors. The first is the history of U.S. intervention in Central and South American countries by putting into power, and supporting, brutal dictators.  The second is seeing the Venezuelan ambassador speak at the School of the Americas Watch where he talked about regime change  in South America being a very real concern of their's, based on current practices of the Bush Administration.  And third, the recent diary of  Florida Democrat, Another Coup in Venezuela, which talks about  the possible efforts our country has taken in U.S. financed post-election destabilization plans around the world and also to oust Chavez.  You can also read more about this at VenezuelaAnalysis.com.

Below the fold is more about the polling and  interesting comments from Chavez yesterday.

On November 23 an Associated Press story ran about the AP-IPSOS poll:

A strong majority of Venezuelans plan to cast their ballots for President Hugo Chavez on Dec. 3, with most saying the fiery opponent of President Bush has handled government and foreign relations well, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that revealed deep divisions along class lines.

About 59 percent of likely voters said they would vote for Chavez for a third term, while 27 percent said they would support opposition candidate Manuel Rosales. Thirteen percent of those surveyed by the polling firm Ipsos for The Associated Press said they were undecided or wouldn't answer.

In stark contrast to the AP-IPSOS poll,  the polling firm implicated in regime change in Florida Democrat’s Another Coup in Venezuela diary has the Venezuelan presidential race at a dead heat. Which poll do you trust?

Last week, Mr. Schoen, of Penn, Schoen & Berland, released the findings of his latest survey on the Venezuelan evening news.  As expected, Penn's survey showed that Chavez's opposition, Manuel Rosales, was nearly tied in the polls with Chavez.  Chavez, it showed, had only 48% support, and his opponent Manuel Rosales had gained significantly up to 42%.  This poll is now being reported across all the major Venezuelan media, to a huge audience, showing that Rosales was gaining more and more everyday, and could possibly win.  Mr. Schoen added his personal opinion, "The momentum is clearly with Rosales."

On Saturday, President Chavez declared that media carrying out fraudulent mid-day polls must "assume the consequences." Venezuela's government is aware of these attempts to overturn the results of their election and we should be too.  In the next few days it will be important for social justice activists to follow  the reports of international observers  and make sure their observations are also reported in our corporate media  here in the U.S.  

 

From Michael Fox writing at VenezuelaAnalysis.com here are a couple of other Chavez comments I found interesting.

Regarding the opposition’s pre-emptive claims that the elections will be fraudulent, Chavez stated, "There is no possibility of fraud. No one can commit fraud in these elections in Venezuela. We have a completely transparent type of system. You can audit it, you can observe it."
Chavez said that Venezuela never had international observers or vote audits before.
"I would like to welcome the international observers," he added.

Speaking on democracy, Chavez stated that in the eight years, there have been 11 (including this Sunday) national elections, while over the 40-year "democratic" period before Chavez, there where only 15.
"There will be more and more democracy here, participatory democracy, and that’s why we are going to win this election," said Chavez. "Those who don’t realize this, will have their reasons."

Speaking of destabilization attempts, Chavez also declared that they recently foiled an assassination plot against his main opposition opponent, Manuel Rosales.
"It was to say that Chávez sent them to kill him and generate chaos," said Chavez, who did not give further details.

For those of you following the Venezuelan election today, please post any links to updates you have in the comment area and I will add them to the Update area of the diary. I should be able to keep an eye on it most of the day.

Update:

Thanks to Truza for providing additional blogs posting about the Venezuelan election. One of the bloggers asks that we not bite at every rumour that surfaces. I think that's good advice as I'm sure it will take days for the observers to make their reports.

Anti-Chavez blogs:

The Devil's Excrement
Venezuela News and Views

Pro-Chavez blogs:

Oil Wars
Hands off Venezuela

Here's a flickr pool with photos of the Venezuelan voting happening today.

Update 2:

Reuters is reporting there have problems with some of the voting machines printing out blank ballots. Rosales, the opposition candidate, called on authorities to fix these machines. There are also hundreds of international observers there, so I'm sure we'll get a good feel in the coming days of how fair this election was.

Voice of America reports..

Some polling stations opened late, but there were no early reports of major irregularities.

Venezuela has implemented what many observers regard as the most exhaustive set of electoral safeguards ever seen in Latin America. They include fingerprint voter identification, electronic balloting with a paper receipt and thorough vigilance of balloting by election workers, representatives of both major candidates and observers form the Organization of American States, the European Union, Mercosur, and the Atlanta-based Carter Center. More than 100,000 troops have been dispatched to provide security at 11,000 polling stations.

Update 3 (last today):

Reuters says Chavez headds to Venezueal re-election according to a government-paid exit poll.

Chavez won 58 percent of the vote, while Manuel Rosales, governor of an oil-producing province, trailed with 40 percent, said Evans/McDonough Co., a U.S. pollster commissioned by the state oil company.

[...]

Although Evans/McDonough is linked to the government, its surveys have credibility in Venezuela because it has been transparent about its methodology and it precisely predicted the outcome of a 2004 recall referendum that Chavez won.

[...]

Teodoro Petkoff, one of the most respected figures in the opposition, said the voting was carried out in a "satisfactory" manner and when irregularities emerged they were generally addressed by the electoral authorities.

The OAS says that there were some minor problems with the election, but that overall turnout wasmassive and peaceful.