Daily Times

CARACAS: President Nicolas Maduro set his sights on Venezuela’s 2018 presidential election after the ruling Socialist Party predictably dominated mayoral polls with the help of a partial boycott by a demoralized opposition.

The 55-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez, enjoying a political breather after a year of ferocious domestic protests and damaging foreign sanctions, said the government had won at least 90 percent of the 335 mayorships in Sunday’s election.

Latest official results gave him 41 of 42 mayorships counted. No one doubted the socialists’ big win given three of the biggest opposition parties were abstaining.

The elections left Maduro favorite to be the socialists’ candidate in next year’s presidential race, despite the ambitions of rivals within government and an economic crisis that has pummeled the OPEC nation since his 2013 election.

“We’re ready to compete!” he told cheering supporters in a Caracas square shortly before midnight on Sunday, next to a statue of Venezuela’s independence hero Simon Bolivar.

“2018 belongs to the ‘Chavistas’,” Maduro said, using the ruling movement’s name after his popular mentor and predecessor.

He also declared fixing Venezuela’s broken economy a priority. But opponents and even some government dissenters say it is his stubborn adherence to Chavez-era economic policies – such as currency controls – that is to blame for the mess.

Venezuela’s 30 million people are enduring one of the worst economic meltdowns in Latin American history. Millions are skipping meals, missing medicines, and lining up for hours at shops during acute shortages and crippling inflation.

Venezuela’s opposition coalition scoffed at Sunday’s vote as a Pyrrhic victory for Maduro. “Irregularities and low turnout characterized the vote,” said the coalition, which is demanding reforms to the electoral system for the 2018 vote.

Participation was 47 percent, the election board said.

Three of the coalition’s main parties – Popular Will, Justice First and Democratic Action – boycotted Sunday’s polls, saying the election board was at the service of Maduro’s “dictatorship” and turning a blind eye to abuses by the state.

But other opposition parties did put up candidates, adding to confusion and acrimony within opposition ranks.

Maduro said the three abstaining parties should be banned from participating in future elections.

The presidential election has traditionally been held in December, but there is speculation it will be brought forward to the first half of 2018 so the socialists can take advantage of the opposition’s disarray.

Published in Daily Times, December 12^th 2017.