Low expectations… and a lower turnout in the horizon

The elections scheduled for May 25 are supposed to appoint a new National Assembly, governors and state legislatures (“choose” or “elect” might be not be suitable terms anymore, after last year’s events). María Corina Machado and the Unitary Platform are boycotting, and turnout is expected to be a fraction of what we saw in the July 28 presidential election.

Opposition parties were barred from submitting candidates, with the exception of Un Nuevo Tiempo (Manuel Rosales’ party) and Unión y Cambio, a new formation led by Henrique Capriles and Tomás Guanipa. Both recently had their political bans lifted—likely the result of a quiet deal with Maduro & Co, which neither has really denied.

To make matters worse, the regime appears to be removing QR codes from the voting tallies—a key mechanism that allowed observers to collect and share polling station results last year and expose the electoral fraud.

Whether Capriles, Guanipa, and the other non-chavista candidates can demonstrate legitimate wins—assuming they can win anything at all—amid low turnout and mounting irregularities remains to be seen. Will they truly stand apart from the faux “opposition” figures who were gifted National Assembly seats in 2020?