At stake
in this election:
- Office of president
of the Republic of Venezuela
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Description
of government structure:
- Venezuela has a
unicameral National Assembly currently consisting of 21 members.
- *Note: The 21-member
congress is an interim legislature put in place after the constitution
passed by referendum in December 1999 dissolved the previous bicameral
parliament.
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Description
of electoral system:
- The president is
directly elected by popular vote for a six-year term.
- Members of the
National Assembly will be elected by a mixed system with 60% being elected
by simple majority vote in single member constituencies and 40% elected
by closed party-lists with proportional representation in multi-member
constituencies. All members will be elected to five-year terms.
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Results of the election for president:
- Presidential
Candidate: Hugo CHAVEZ
Party: Movement for the Fifth Republic (MVR)
Votes Cast: 3,757,773
Percentage of Votes Cast: 56.93%
- Presidential
Candidate: Francisco ARIAS Cardenas
Party: Independent Candidate
Votes Cast: 2,359,459
Percentage of Votes Cast: 35.75%
- Presidential
Candidate: Claudio FERMIN
Party: National Encounter (EN)
Votes Cast: 171, 346
Percentage of Votes Cast: 2.60%
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When was
the last presidential election?
- Presidential elections
last held: December 6, 1998
- President Hugo
Chavez received 56.20% of the vote, defeating Henrique Salas, his closest
competitor with 39.97% of the vote.
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Population
and number of registered voters:
- Population: 24,169,807
(June 2000 est.)
- Number of registered voters: 11,795,440
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Of Interest:
- The July 30, 2000
elections were originally scheduled for May 28, 2000, but were postponed
due to technical problems.
- The new constitution,
passed by referendum in December 1999, dissolved the existing bicameral
Parliament to form a unicameral National Assembly which also held elections
on July 30, 2000.
- The constitution
also extended the presidential term from five to six years which would
potentially allow Chavez to be in power for another twelve years.
- The new constitution
also granted the right to vote to approximately 90,000 military personnel
previously barred from voting.
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| SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR ELECTION SYSTEMS (IFES) |
| For additional information:
IFES ElectionGuide Online |
