Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on 3 December 2006 to elect a president for a six-year term to begin on 10 January 2007. The contest was primarily between incumbent President Hugo Chávez, and Zulia Governor Manuel Rosales of the opposition party A New Era.
After winning a recall referendum in 2004, President Chávez positioned himself for re-election in 2006 for a second full term. The opposition did not hold a primary, instead, the candidates reached a consensus into backing the governor of the largest state (Zulia), Manuel Rosales. Chávez benefited from a high popularity, and led most opinion polls throughout the campaign. He went to win re-election by the widest margin by percentage of the popular vote since the 1947 elections, and by the largest margin of votes cast in the history of Venezuela.
Candidates
There were fourteen candidates in total, making the ballot the largest in Venezuelan history. According to El Universal, this was caused by division among adherents to grassroots Chavismo.
- Hugo Chávez, incumbent president, representing the Fifth Republic Movement
- Manuel Rosales, governor of Zulia State, representing A New Era
- Pedro Aranguren of Movimiento Conciencia de País
- Carolina Contreras, independent
- Venezuela Portuguesa Da Silva Isquierdo of Nuevo Orden Social
- Ángel Irigoyen, of Let Us Break Chains (RC)
- Isbelia León, of the Strength and Peace Institution
- Luis Alfonso Reyes Castillo of Organización Juventud Organizada de Venezuela (Joven)
- Homer Rodríguez, of For Love of Venezuela
- Carmelo Romano Pérez, Liberal United People Movement
- Yudith Salazar of Hijos de la Patria
- Alejandro José Suárez Luzardo of the Partido Sentir Nacional
- José Tineo, Venezuelan Third Millennium National Party
- Eudes Vera Tovar, independent
Withdrawn candidates
- Jesús Caldera Infante the former president of FOGADE, representing the New Progressive Alliance. On 29 November, he withdrew his candidacy and backed Rosales.
- Benjamín Rausseo a stand-up comedian, endorsed by the newly formed "PIEDRA" party. Three weeks before the election, in accordance with a campaign pledge he had made earlier (to stand down if not placed first or second in the opinion polls), he withdrew his candidacy without endorsing either Chávez or Rosales, telling his supporters to vote for either.
Primary election
Opposition leaders debated on how they could choose a single candidate. Julio Borges, of Justice First, proposed holding primary elections for August 2006. Civil society organization Súmate recommended procedures for a primary, to be held on 13 August 2006, to choose the opposition candidate for the December 2006 presidential elections. Among the candidates were: Manuel Rosales (A New Era), Teodoro Petkoff (independent), Sergio Omar Calderón (Copei), Wiliam Ojeda (Un Solo Pueblo), Cecilia Sosa (Federal Republican Party), Enrique Tejera París (independent) and Vicente Brito (Republican Movement). Nine other candidates agreed to the terms for holding a primary, confirming their desire to allow the citizens to choose the opposition candidate.
The main candidates, Julio Borges and Teodoro Petkoff, agreed to withdraw from the pre-candidacy to endorse Manuel Rosales, based on his opinion polling support. More than thirty political and civil organizations publicly expressed their support to Rosales. The trade union bureau of Democratic Actions, as well as its regional components and many party leaders, announced that they would support the single opposition candidate in the December elections. On 9 August, Súmate announced that the 13 August primary election would not be held, since the candidates had decided to back Manuel Rosales as the single opposition candidate. María Corina Machado said that the primary "initiative accomplished its goal and that Súmate would continue working to ensure clean elections and respect for citizens' rights".
Campaign
Chávez
Chávez's campaign manager Rafael Lacava said that the campaign was to be based on defending Venezuela's national sovereignty and promoting world peace. According to Unión Radio, Lacava added that a campaign theme was to be the "country's freedom to no longer be a North American colony". According to the Associated Press, Chávez launched his campaign "with warnings that Washington is trying to undermine December's presidential vote and destabilize Venezuela", saying "I am the candidate of the revolution and without a doubt I am the candidate of the national majority", dismissing other candidates as "tools of the U.S. government". El Universal reports that Chávez said, "In this electoral process there are two candidates only, namely Hugo Chávez and George W. Bush".
Chávez promised that if elected he would personally convoke a midterm recall referendum in the year 2010 without the need for petition signatures as was the case with the 2004 recall referendum, and that he won that recall referendum, he would then call for a referendum to ask the people for indefinite re-election to be put into the constitution. On 26 November Chávez made his final rally in Caracas. Reuters estimated that hundreds of thousands participated. Chávez supporters packed several streets.
Rosales
Rosales said that the backbone of his government program was to be the social arena, saying it will be a "sound and well defined" program, including a "fair allocation of oil revenues by means of two axes– minimum wage for all unemployed and direct contribution to the underprivileged". The latter being promoted as Mi Negra which is a debit card handed out to the poor with monthly deposits from 20% of oil industry profits. Nevertheless, a poll shows 59% of the Venezuelan people rejected the Mi Negra program, preferring stable jobs. According to the Los Angeles Times, Rosales stated that Chávez was vulnerable on his "massive foreign aid programs, government-approved takeovers of land and buildings, and the perception that crime is increasing". Rosales said, "We will distribute land to the peasants, but we will buy it in such a way as to respect the principle of private property, just as we will respect those of human rights and social justice". Rosales would halt oil giveaways, "including sales of discounted oil to Cuba, until Venezuela reduced its high poverty rate".
The Associated Press reports that Rosales accuses Chávez of "overspending on a military buildup" and pledged "to use Venezuela's oil wealth to help the poor and improve education and health care", ridiculing Chávez's "claims of a possible war with the U.S." and saying, "Venezuela's real war should be against rampant street crime". Rosales held several large rallies around the country; the largest being "Las Avalanchas" in Caracas. Rallies were held in several states to try to get the Rosales campaign to be heard by as many people as possible. To close his election campaign, Manuel Rosales held a huge final rally in Caracas with an estimate by the Associated Press to be in the hundreds of thousands.
No debate held
Rosales demanded a public debate, saying Chávez should choose the TV channel where the debate would be broadcast. He also said "I am waiting for him (Chávez) to have a debate with me broadcast by all the TV channels to allow Venezuelans to know what is the project and the vision of the country he has and the project and vision we have". Chávez declared he would not debate Rosales because "the candidates from the opposition do not even have the condition to debate a schoolboy or girl in sixth grade from a Bolivarian school".
Slogans and ads
Chávez
Chávez launched his campaign with a slogan of 10 Millones de votos (10 million votes), On multiple occasions the campaign used the more combative "10 millones por el buche" (10 million votes down their throats). On 17 August 2006, while leading the oath at the national campaign headquarters (Commando Miranda), Chávez acknowledged that 10 million votes would be hard to attain.
From 9 October, Chávez campaign used the slogans por amor (for love) and Chávez, victoria de Venezuela (Chávez, Venezuela's victory). They also used the slogan uh, ah, Chávez no se va (ooh, oh, Chávez won't go) from the 2004 recall referendum campaign. A poll conducted by Cifras Escenarios reported that 76.7% of Venezuelans liked the love message. The English translation of the message is as follows:
Always, I have done everything out of love.
For the love of trees and rivers, I became a painter.
For the love of knowledge, studies, I left my dearest village, to study.
For the love of sports I became a ball player.
For the love of the motherland I became a soldier.
For the love of the people I became President, you made me President.
I have ruled these years out of love.
For love we did Barrio Adentro.
For love we did Mission Robinson.
For love we did Mercal.
We have done everything for love.
There is a lot left to do. I need more time.
I NEED YOUR VOTE. YOUR VOTE FOR LOVE.
Rosales
Atrévete con Manuel Rosales is the Rosales campaign slogan.
¡Ni el imperio, ni el barbudo! (Neither the [U.S.] empire, nor the [Cuban] bearded one!) is a slogan used by Rosales in launching his campaign, intended to "hit Chávez where the Venezuelan comandante is most vulnerable: his penchant for giving away billions of dollars to foreign countries, while nearly half of the Venezuelan people live in poverty" referring to subsidized oil deals to both Cuba and the United States. "We are not going to be the empire's defenders," Rosales said. "The empire must respect our sovereignty, and we must respect the empire," and "we cannot be looking at societies like Cuba as a model to be copied. We want modernity, transformation, development."
Endorsements
Chávez
- Action Force of Base Coordination (FACOBA)
- Action Networks of Community Change (REDES)
- Active Democracy National Organization (ONDA)
- Communitary Patriotic Unity (UPC)
- Emergent People (GE)
- Everybody Wins Independent Movement (MIGATO)
- Fifth Republic Movement (MVR)
- Independents for the National Community (IPCN)
- Laboral Power (PL)
- Militants Civic Movement (MCM)
- Movement for Direct Democracy (MDD)
- National Independent Movement (MNI)
- National Socialist Group of Liberation Pro Venezuela (PROVEN)
- New People Concentration Movement (MCGN)
- Tupamaro
- Revolutionary Middle Class (CMR)
- Union Party
- Venezuelan Revolutionary Currents (CRV)
Rosales
- A New Era
- Acción Agropecuaria
- Fearless People's Alliance (ABP)
- Apertura
- Araguaney Movimiento Popular
- National Convergence
- COPEI
- Democracia Renovadora
- Encuentro Nacional
- Fuerza Liberal
- Fuerza Popular
- Izquierda Democrática
- Justice First (PJ)
- Movement for Socialism (MAS)
- Movimiento Republicano
- Movimiento Laborista
- Partido Popular Independiente
- Pensamiento Nacional
- PIEDRA
- Polo Democrático
- Radical Cause
- Red Flag Party
- Solidaridad
- Solidaridad Independiente
- Unión Republicana Democrática
- Un Solo Pueblo
- Venezuela de Primera
- Venezuela Somos Todos
Calls for abstention
Opinion polls
(*) Technical tie
(+) Results are political segmentation, not voter intention
(++) This poll was attributed to the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. University's authorities clarified that they have not knowledge about this study. One of members of the CEPS happen to be a university faculty.
(+++) Publisher does not mention polling company.
International markets
International markets largely saw a Chávez victory. Rafael de la Fuente of BNP Paribas stated "The market expects a Chávez victory, they don't even question it". Ricardo Amorim of WestLB Research "The vision I see is that of a 20-point victory... We would be surprised if he does not win". Patrick Esteruelas of Eurasia Group saw Chávez winning by 60 percent. Also arguing that a high turnout would benefit Chávez, Goldman Sachs dismissed the close polling arguing, "Chávez is the favorite to win the election due to vast control of logistical and financial state resources, and influence over key institutions".
Conduct
Four organisations were given permission to send official election observers to monitor the elections: Carter Center, European Union, Mercosur and Organization of American States. A fifth organisation was refused permission: Cortes Generales (Spanish parliament).
Polling stations opened at 6:00 a.m. but newspaper El Universal reported that in some electoral centers, voters waited in line since 3:00 a.m. According to the National Electoral Council
(CNE) director Humberto Castillo, the turnout in polling stations was massive, and the conditions were "normal" throughout the country. Polling station were scheduled to close at 4:00 p.m. Around 5 p.m., CNE president Tibisay Lucena officially announced the end of the voting process, but gave orders to keep polling stations open if voters still remained in line.