VENEZUELA: Three Venezuelan opposition parties have announced they are withdrawing all candidates from Sunday's legislative elections, claiming election procedure irregularities make a fair vote impossible.
Officials in President Hugo Chavez's government, meanwhile, claimed that the withdrawals were a reaction to the dismal prospects that the parties faced in the upcoming balloting. Polls show that Movimiento Quinta Republica and other parties aligned with Mr Chavez are likely to further strengthen their solid majority of seats in Venezuela's National Assembly.
"Very well, let them go to hell," said vice-president José Vicente Rangel, in response to news of Accion Democratica's withdrawal. "They say this process isn't clean, but this is the cleanest in Venezuela's history."
"They're withdrawing and calling fraud. What fraud? Accept the truth! ... It was them that betrayed the people's hopes for so many years," said Mr Chavez during a trade accord signing with Italian officials in Caracas on Tuesday.
The parties that are withdrawing are Accion Democratica, which was the dominant Venezuelan political party prior to Mr Chavez's rise to power; Proyecto Venezuela, and the Social Christian Party. Together the three now hold 35 seats in the 165-seat assembly. Chavez loyalists control a majority of 86 seats.
The withdrawal shows the deepening polarisation in Venezuela's political scene. Mr Chavez has held power since early 1999, survived a coup attempt in April 2002 and a referendum to remove him from office in August 2004.
Mr Chavez, an ex-paratrooper, is due to stand for re-election late next year, and at this point he is the clear favourite. He has launched a host of social programmes including cut-rate groceries, adult education and medical help to benefit the poor.
But opponents claim he has also slowly restructured Venezuela's electoral, judicial and legislative institutions so he can bend them to his will. One such institution is the national election council known by its Spanish initials CNE, which is controlled by a pro-Chavez majority. Alleged irregularities uncovered last week in a test of CNE voting machines prompted the three parties to withdraw on Tuesday.
The CNE announced Monday it was withdrawing the voting machines, which verify voter identity through thumbprints, but that the elections would be held on Sunday as scheduled with electronic balloting machines.
After the test, Accion Democratica and the Social Christian Party requested a postponement of the vote until the machines could be reprogrammed. Salas Romer said his party asked that the machines be jettisoned altogether and that there be a return to manual balloting. Maria Corina Machado, of Sumate, a voting rights organisation, said there had been an increasing "lack of transparency" in the electoral process since Chavez loyalists took control of CNE. - (LA Times-Washington Post service)