State of the institutions

IS THE POLITICAL PARTIES SYSTEM DECLINING IN VENEZUELA ?

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Summary

• 1999 Constitution contains political organization elements acting against the construction of partisan organizations.
• Attempt to eliminate political parties consistent with President’s ideology inspired on Ceresole’s recommendations proclaiming a direct relation between leader-army-population.
• Electoral Battle Units later transformed into Endogenous Battle Units have a direct relation with the President.
• MVR’s disputes during the election of candidates ended in violent confrontations, fraud accusations, actions before the TSJ, and hunger strikes.

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1. President Chávez Frías promoted the idea of a Constituent Assembly in order to create a new Constitution in 1999. Such Constitution contains some organizational elements related to the political organization of the civil society that shall be underlined, because they act against the formation of partisan organizations in Venezuela . For example:

• The new Constitution not only eliminates all and every possibility of public financing -as it was considered in the Constitution of 1961- but it also disregards the concept of political parties. Political parties are not even mentioned in the constitutional text, which only talks about "organizations with political purposes".
• The lack of public financing to political parties becomes more difficult each time for the Venezuelan democratic balance. We are living a political reality in which the institutional balances and counterbalances have been disappearing and the budget division between the finances of the government party and those of the government itself has been banished. While the minority parties do not receive financing from the Venezuelan State and receive it from abroad, it is for no one a secret, that the Government campaigns are being financed with resources from the Venezuelan State, such thing being admitted by the President of the Republic.

2. That attempt to eliminate the parties is consistent with the ideology of President Chávez Frías, inspired by the recommendations of Norberto Ceresole, an argentine sociologist, who proclaims a direct relation between leader-army-population without the mediation of the parties.

3. Only some rank and file organizations have succeeded, in popular sectors, created for the electoral processes held on August and October of 2004. Such organizations are the Electoral Battle Units, now being transformed in Endogenous Battle Units, encouraged by the President and which claim for a direct relation with President Chávez Frías, with no direct subjection whatsoever to the MVR party or to any other allied party of the Government.

4. Among the parties that support the Government, "Movimiento Quinta República" (MVR) is the strongest and the most voted of the existing parties in Venezuela; notwithstanding, it appears that the efforts towards its consolidation have found internal disputes, of which the most evident expression was that occurred with the recent internal process held to select the candidates for "Movimiento Quinta República" (MVR). Within this process, a confrontation took place between the MVR and some allies, which ended in violence, fraud accusations and actions before the "TSJ" (Supreme Court of Justice), as well as hunger strikes.