Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Voting got under way early on Sunday morning in the internal elections to select 15 members of an executive committee for President Hugo Chávez' still gestating United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
Chávez is expected personally to nominate several other members of the PSUV's top echelon, although when remains unclear. Unconfirmed reports say plans are that 22 individuals will sit on the committee. Half of them will theoretically be women.
Jorge Rodríguez, who heads a "technical committee" promoting (ie, overseeing) formation of the PSUV exhorted the 94,248 voters to "attend the voices of the batallions they represent, and not other sorts of interests." Rodríguez is on a list of contenders for the committee.
The "batallions" are the basic building blocks of the new party's structure, and their stated purpose is to reflect views from the grass roots.
The election was not a one man-one vote affair involving the rank and file. Instead, it was the role of delegates from the batallions to represent the "bases" of the PSUV in what Rodríguez called "the impulse of the socialist thesis" in "the form, action and political culture of the Venezuelans."
Polling stations had been provided by the National Electoral Council (CNE) at 361 schools across the country. Of these, 29 were in Táchira, 23 in Mérida state, 22 in Metropolitan Caracas, and 21 apiece in Anzoátegui, Miranda and opposition-ruled Zulia, 18 in Aragua and 12 in the president's home states of Barinas (12).
Voting was scheduled to start at six o'clock in the morning and close at four in the afternoon, but reports suggested there had been a slow start at some polling stations in Barinas. It wasn't until 8:20 in the morning that the regional electoral office there reported that the full dozen polling stations were up and running.
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Seems to me that each PSUV battalion should be based on some multiple of the geography of the consejos comunales: which should themselves be the grassroots basis of the socialist state -- with all the power which comes from the mass of the people thereby. So there should really be standard voting locations, at the consejo level -- available for every occasion which calls for a vote, for any country-wide organization, etc.: a situation which should come up often in a socialist democracy. Therefore there shouldn't be a lot involved in setting up standard machines in standard locations, on even short notice, for any occasion -- one important reason for each consejo region to e.g. have its own council/public all-use building or complex dedicated to the social functioning of each consejo area.
ReplyDeleteThe way the PSUV party is actually being set up, however, is rubbing a lot of people the wrong way -- whether they're inside the country or out, in the opposition or not. For one thing: absolutely no one should be "appointed" to their post -- I don't care how honest and clear-thinking Hugo Chávez is otherwise. This is simply not socialist democracy in action here. What would be the state of such a party setup not long after Chávez was assassinated, for instance..? Take a guess.
It seems to me we have some people in the bolivarian hierarchy who want to have their cake and eat it too, when it comes to 'socialism' and 'change'. So I'm hoping that either the rank and file of the new PSUV can rectify these failings quickly -- or that other parties which have maintained their independence from this cosy little bolivarian club will keep the feet of this party to the fire of socialist construction.