Things are moving very fast and I really don’t know what it means. The Carte center decided to pull out of the observation process for the regional elections. Thus, after doing a lousy job they say that the fact that the opposition did not recognize their decision as well as the lack of funding prevent them from coming. As far as I am concerned good riddance, they did not do the job last time, I had little hope they would do it this time around. There is a statement in that same communiqué that seems to suggest they are not as comfortable with automated voting processes.
The OAS will also not be here; apparently they are surprised by an election that legally was supposed to have taken place three weeks ago. Thus, we are left alone, no observers to watch the next rip off. We are probably better off anyway.
But maybe the Chavistas will be left on their own anyway, ratifying that their democracy is empty and is a shambles. Metropolitan mayor Alfredo Peña, whom I dislike tremendously, decided to withdraw his candidacy arguing that conditions are not adequate to participate in an election. Peña appeared to be leading the polls or very close so his decision appears to be more principled than at first sight.
This may simply be a sign of things to come as the Álvarez report appears to have convinced many people of the folly of participating in the regional elections under the current conditions.
Up to last week I was leaning towards thinking that it would be silly not to participate in the regional elections. I have changed my mind. The Álvarez report has proven to me not only that there was fraud, but that the whole process was simply a huge farce. The voting machines used were not even what they were purported to be. They were dumb terminals incapable of functioning outside of a network. They did not even have a memory!
I have changed my mind. I am a democrat but I want all candidates to withdraw until the electoral registry is audited and the law is followed, the law states very clearly THAT EVERY BALLOT BOX has to be counted. Until both these conditions are met, the opposition can not go blindly to an additional electoral process. The third condition required is that the machines can not transmit information during the day and the final results can not be transmitted until the final results have been printed.
Until all of these three conditions are met, your not so happy blogger, a true and veritable democrat, who has never failed to vote at any election, refuses to participate in the upcoming regional elections.
The Devil's Excrement 