Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on 20 May 2018, with incumbent Nicolás Maduro being declared reelected for a second six-year term. The original electoral date was scheduled for December 2018 but was subsequently pulled ahead to 22 April before being pushed back to 20 May. Some analysts described the poll as a sham election, as many prominent opposition parties had been barred from participating in it. The elections had the lowest voter turnout in Venezuela's democratic era.
Several Venezuelan NGOs, such as Foro Penal, Súmate, Voto Joven, the Venezuelan Electoral Observatory and the Citizen Electoral Network expressed their concern over the irregularities of the electoral schedule, including the lack of the Constituent Assembly's competencies to summon the elections, impeding participation of opposition political parties, and the lack of time for standard electoral functions. Because of this, the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Lima Group and countries including Australia and the United States rejected the electoral process. However, some countries including Belarus, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Vietnam and others recognized the election result.
The two leading candidates opposing Maduro, Henri Falcón and Javier Bertucci, rejected the results, saying that the election was critically flawed by irregularities. Bertucci asked that the elections be repeated with Maduro being disqualified. Maduro was inaugurated on 10 January 2019, leading to a presidential crisis.
Background
Following the death of President Hugo Chávez in 2013, Venezuela faced a severe socioeconomic crisis during the presidency of his successor, Nicolás Maduro. Due to the country's high levels of urban violence, inflation, and chronic shortages of basic goods attributed primarily to the devaluation of the Venezuelan bolívar and to some extent due to economic policies such as strict price controls, civil insurrection in Venezuela culminated in the 2014–18 protests. Protests occurred periodically over the years, with demonstrations occurring in various sizes depending on the events Venezuelans were facing during the crisis.
After facing years of crisis, the Venezuelan opposition pursued a recall referendum against President Maduro, presenting a petition to the National Electoral Council (CNE) on 2 May 2016.
By August 2016, the momentum to recall President Maduro appeared to be progressing, with the CNE setting a date for the second phase of collecting signatures, though it made the schedule strenuous, stretching the process into 2017 which made it impossible for the opposition to activate new presidential elections.
On 21 October 2016, the CNE suspended the referendum days before preliminary signature-gatherings were to be held. The CNE blamed several irregularities and alleged voter fraud as the reason for the cancellation of the referendum. International observers criticized the move, stating that CNE's decision made Maduro look as if he were seeking to rule as a dictator.
Days after the recall movement was cancelled, 1.2 million Venezuelans protested throughout the country against the move, demanding that President Maduro leave office, with Caracas protests remaining calm while protests in other states resulted in clashes between demonstrators and authorities, leaving one policeman dead, 120 injured, and 147 arrested. That day the opposition gave President Maduro a deadline of 3 November 2016 to hold elections, with opposition leader Henrique Capriles stating, "Today we are giving a deadline to the government. I tell the coward who is in Miraflores ... that on 3 November the Venezuelan people are coming to Caracas because we are going to Miraflores".
On 1 November 2016, then National Assembly President and opposition leader Henry Ramos Allup announced the cancellation of 3 November march to the Miraflores presidential palace, with Vatican-led dialogue between the opposition and the government beginning. By 7 December 2016, dialogue halted between the two. Two months later, on 13 January 2017 after talks stalled, the Vatican officially pulled out of the dialogue. On 23 January 2017, Henrique Capriles, a two-time presidential candidate, declared: "This will be the last conventional protest; the next one will be a surprise one". The opposition then began to focus on its electoral efforts, with only sporadic protests occurring for the next few months.
Following the 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, protests in Venezuela intensified in mid-2017, though the movement died down after President Maduro called for a controversial special election, which resulted with the installation of the pro-government superbody, the Constituent National Assembly. Regional elections that occurred months later further cemented the government's power after they won 18 of the 23 governorships.
Election preparations
After the government overcame mass protests and won two major disputed elections, one of which installed a constitutional superbody, the government rallied behind President Maduro, with government sources stating that elections were to be moved ahead to February or March 2018 instead of the planned late-2018 date to take advantage of their electoral momentum. On 11 December 2017, President Maduro announced that many of the main opposition parties, including Justice First and Popular Will, would be banned from participating in the 2018 presidential election for abstaining to participate in the 2017 municipal elections.
In February 2018, the government announced that elections would be held on 22 April 2018, less than three months before the date. Popular Will announced on 16 February that it would boycott the elections. Following weeks of controversy involving international condemnation and rejection of potential election results, the CNE delayed the election for a few additional weeks pushing for a 20 May 2018 election date.
Electoral system
The President of Venezuela is elected by plurality in a single round of voting.
The elections were overseen by the National Electoral Council, with poll workers drafted via a lottery of registered voters. Polling places were equipped with multiple high-tech touch-screen DRE voting machines. After the vote is cast, each machine prints out a paper ballot, or VVPAT, which is inspected by the voter and deposited in a ballot box belonging to the machine's table. The voting machines perform in a stand-alone fashion, disconnected from any network until the polls close. Voting session closure at each of the voting stations in a given polling center is determined either by the lack of further voters after the lines have emptied, or by the hour, at the discretion of the president of the voting table.
After the Agreement of Electoral Guarantees was signed on 1 March by the political parties Great Patriotic Pole, Movimiento al Socialismo, Avanzada Progresista, and COPEI, the United Nations was asked, with a formal invitation and visit by the main candidates or their representatives, to send a delegation to monitor the election. The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) opposed UN electoral observation in Venezuela. In the end, the UN refused to send a mission.
The Carter Center turned down Maduro's invitation to send an observation team on election day, as did other election observing institutions.
Smartmatic, the electoral product company which had participated in the majority of elections under the Bolivarian government, ceased operations in its native country in March 2018, stating that they could not guarantee the validity of election results through its machines.
The election was mainly observed by allies of the Venezuelan government after many international bodies decided that there were no democratic guarantees in the country; the United Nations declined the invitation to monitor the election, after members of the opposition asked the UN not to send observers. On 23 March 2018 a United Nations official informed that the organization would not offer electoral assistance in the elections, without explaining the motives. Spokesperson Farhan Haq stated that a letter was sent to Venezuelan authorities regarding the request of electoral experts, but did not explain the content. These observers included the Latin American Council on Electoral Experts, Common Frontiers, Unifor, former Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and former President of Ecuador Rafael Correa.
Primary process
Opposition
In March 2017, parties of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), the opposition's main electoral alliance, began discussion on who would be their candidate for the 2018 presidential elections. On 14 March 2017, Popular Will announced that Leopoldo López, the party's National Coordinator who is currently imprisoned for his role in the 2014 protests against the Bolivarian government, was chosen to be their candidate for the MUD primaries.
Days later, on 20 March 2017, Justice First chose Henrique Capriles Radonski to be their candidate for the primaries, his third run for the presidency, with his previous attempts occurring in the 2012 and 2013 presidential elections. On 21 March 2017, veteran politician Henry Ramos Allup was chosen to be the candidate for the Democratic Action.
In February 2018, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) announced that it would boycott the presidential election, saying the electoral system was rigged in favor of incumbent President Nicolás Maduro and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
Opinion polls
On 5 May 2018, a poll by DolarToday showed that if the elections were held on that date, 45% of the participants would give their opposition vote for Lorenzo Mendoza, CEO of Empresas Polar, 24% for Leopoldo López, 12% for María Corina Machado, 9% for Henry Ramos Allup, 7% for Henrique Capriles, and 3% for Henri Falcón.
Disqualifications
The majority of popular leaders of the MUD and other members of the opposition could not apply for the elections because of administrative and legal procedures and were disqualified from participating in the presidential elections by the government. This included Henrique Capriles (candidate in the 2012 and 2013 elections), Leopoldo López (sentenced to almost 14 years of prison during the 2014 protests), Antonio Ledezma (arrested in 2015 and later placed under house arrest), Freddy Guevara (whose parliamentary immunity was removed and fled to the residence of the Chilean ambassador), and David Smolansky (currently in exile), as well as María Corina Machado and Miguel Rodríguez Torres, former defense minister and dissident chavista, also incarcerated. On 5 April 2017, the Comptroller General of Venezuela notified Capriles that for 15 years, he would be prevented from participating in public office, alleging without offering proof that he misused public funds as governor, a charge that Capriles denied.
The main opposition political parties were disqualified after they were forced to reregister themselves for a second time in less than a year by the National Electoral Council (CNE) after not participating in the 2017 municipal elections. The parties Popular Will and Puente refused to do so, while the CNE prevented Justice First; only the party Acción Democrática was revalidated. In late January 2018, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice blocked the revalidation of the Democratic Unity Roundtable card, the most voted in the electoral history of the country, and was also banned. Finally, Justice First was disqualified weeks later from the presidential race in early February 2018, leaving only Democratic Action and other minor opposition parties.
The actions by the government cleared the path for Henry Ramos Allup and his Democratic Action to gain popularity in the presidential elections. After many other opposition parties were disqualified, President Maduro singled out Ramos Allup and stated that he would run against him.
PSUV
Due to the perceived unpopularity of President Nicolás Maduro within the PSUV, it was speculated that potential candidates would include former National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, Vice President Tareck El Aissami, and National Constituent Assembly President Delcy Rodríguez. However, Maduro was eventually chosen to run as the party's presidential candidate.
Candidates
Maduro
Nicolás Maduro, the successor of Hugo Chávez who assumed and was elected to the presidency in 2013, ran for re-election. Maduro has denied that there is a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and says that Venezuelans dying from poor health is "exaggerated", blaming many shortcomings on the United States. Maduro made the campaign promise of creating a "new economy" in Venezuela.
The Bolivarian government also increased spending on populist policies during the campaign to help sway voters to support Maduro. Analysts suggested that those policies would further exacerbate the negative effects of the crisis in Venezuela.
Falcón
Henri Falcón is a former governor of Lara who left PSUV in 2010 and founded the party Progressive Advance in 2012, which was affiliated to the Democratic Unity Roundtable until 2018. His political positioning was seen by some as a good way to govern from a position between the government and the opposition, though some Chavistas believe he is a "traitor" while some in the opposition think he is an infiltrator. Falcón was officially nominated as a presidential candidate by the Movement for Socialism on 26 February 2018.