Parliamentary Elections and More - An Update on Venezuelan Affairs

Venezuela’s opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) has won an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections over the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). The electoral commission has said that the opposition had won 99 of the 167 seats in the national assembly. The socialist party won 46. Twenty-two additional seats were still undecided.

Starting from 2015, the 167 members of the National Assembly are elected by a mixed majoritarian system; 113 members are elected by First-past-the-post voting in 87 constituencies. The opposition coalition held primaries on 17 May in 33 of the 87 electoral districts, choosing candidates for 42 seats; 125 additional candidates are expected to be hand-picked by 'consensus' among party leaders, though the rules were later changed to require 40% of opposition candidates to be women and barred some popular opposition candidates from running, a move that experts called unconstitutional. The PSUV held primaries in all 87 electoral districts on 28 June with the Bolivarian government stating there was a participation of 3,162,400 voters, though some observing the primaries noticed a large decrease of voters to less than 1 million participating, or about 10% of PSUV members.

We are delighted to welcome the following speakers for this event: Dr Julia Buxton, Latin America specialist and Venezuela expert at the Central European University; Catherine Nettleton, former British Ambassador to Venezuela (2010-2014); and John Paul Rathbone, Latin America Editor at the Financial Times.