A not so unbiased polling station with electronic votng machine and voting material in front of Chavez’ figure
Arrived only a few hours ago on Saturday and all I can say is that people are on the edge tonight wondering what will happen tomorrow. The cockiness of three weeks ago is not as blatant. Yes, the opposition will get a majority, but after 16 years of Chavismo people (and rumors) are rampant about possible tricks and maneuvers by the government.
This was not helped by the fact that there were Internet blackouts in many parts of the country today. The Head of Conatel, the telecom regulator denied this, but friends tell me that if you tried to call CANTV to report the problems, they were not even answering the phone.
The result is an atmosphere of mistrust and skepticism about what may or may not happen tomorrow. Or the day after, for that matter…
On the positive news front, the Electoral Board announced that witnesses for the opposition outnumbered those of Chavismo’s PSUV by 2,000, a clear indication of the inability of Chavismo to mobilize people like it used to. Many friends also reporting that numerous polling stations have seen no presence of pro-Government members, leading to the installation of the process without them.
Meanwhile, as the international media is harassed as they arrive in Venezuela and also as they try to cover the elections, Chavismo is selling it as a campaign against the country, even citing the number of negative (380), neutral (75) and positive (24) news items about the country. Which according to Chavismo, reflects this campaign and not reality.
Never mind that many reporters have had heir equipment confiscated at the airport and many have been told they can not take pictures of mundane events and their media has been erased.
Meanwhile visiting former Presidents managed to obtain a promise from the Government that political prisoners would be allowed to vote (They were not going to), while the opposition has created a parallel system of observation of the electoral process by foreign dignitaries, as well as social media tools to denounce problems tomorrow with the voting process.
Meanwhile, some pollsters claim to have seen a Maduro resurgence (!!!!), while others say that the result will depend on what Chavismo and now lukewarm Chavistas do. If the latter decide to stay home, the opposition will squeak by, but if they decide to go and express their unhappiness the opposition could enjoy a huge victory, even if short of the super majority.
I am sticking to my guns of a simple majority, roughly 55-58% of Deputies, hoping that former Chavistas are so disenchanted that they prove me wrong. I like the fact that Chavistas are outnumbered by the opposition witnesses and that they have been absent from the installations of the polling stations. But I just wonder if they will they be absent from voting too…
Abstention will be key and pollsters have little confidence that they have a handle on their number. Add proportionality, gerrymandering, fraud and tricks and numerical predictions are really hard to make.
I will do my usual scan throughout Caracas and report solid news, if such an animal exists before midnight tomorrow.
Best of luck to Venezuela from the Devil!
The Devil's Excrement 
December 6, 2015 at 8:32 am
Chilling picture above. Chavez, and his diabolical, easy to hack little Fraudmatic machines. We’ll see how much they want the MUD to win by. 5% or 10%. Chavismo will be very happy with a MUDdy “Parlamento”..
December 6, 2015 at 7:50 am
There was Internet blackout in Carabobo.
Remember: Greater Caracas is quite a different beast. Even electricity blackouts in Greater Caracas are a fraction of what people have to go through in secondary cities where most of Venezuela’s population lives (by secondary cities I remind people: less than Maracaibo and Valencia but more than 50000 inhabitants)
December 6, 2015 at 6:51 am
Edit needed –
“the number of positive (380), neutral (75) and positive (24) news items about the country”
Too many positives!
December 6, 2015 at 8:02 am
It was indeed a long day yesterday! Corrected.
December 6, 2015 at 4:27 am
I fear fraud will rule the day.
December 6, 2015 at 4:25 am
No problem with CANTV ABA (ADSL) in Caracas.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.– Heinlein’s Razor
But don’t rule out malice. There is plenty malice and stupidity in Chavismo so take your pick.
December 6, 2015 at 3:21 am
Stay safe and good luck. My two cents (worth much less) is that the cheating will be massive enough to be obvious, but not odorous enough to cause an outright breakdown of order. Backup prediction: Massive cheating so obvious it changes the winner and causes the breakdown of order (this would all be part of the plan) in order for the government to step in and restore order (i.e. take away more freedom.)
Six one way, half a dozen the other. The end result remains the same: a clueless dictatorship dragging the country further down the rabbit hole. Hope I’m wrong.
December 6, 2015 at 12:45 am
We lost CANTV ABA around 3.30 pm here in Isla Margarita but I just woke up and checked it and it’s working again (1 am).
It’s going to be a very interesting day and evening.
Everyone vote early and often.
December 6, 2015 at 12:07 am
Here I quote some content from the link at the bottom:
But analysts said Venezuela’s vote on Sunday will be less decisive, and potentially volatile, since opposition parties have little in common beyond their disdain for Maduro.
His term as president runs until 2019, unless the opposition wins a big enough majority to force him out by constitutional means.
If the opposition wins a smaller majority, Maduro could manipulate the result in his favor or just rule by presidential decree, said analyst Luis Vicente Leon, head of Datanalisis.
“The assembly could seek to impeach the president, but he could try to dissolve the congress,” said Leon.
Another senior opposition figure, Henrique Capriles, warned opposition radicals against taking to the streets after Sunday’s vote.
“Venezuela is a bomb ready to explode,” he told AFP.
http://news.yahoo.com/oil-rich-cash-poor-venezuela-tense-election-015243351.html