Venezuelan general election, 1993

Venezuelan presidential election, 1993

December 5, 1993

Nominee Rafael Caldera Claudio Fermín Oswaldo Álvarez Paz Party CVGV AD COPEI Home state Yaracuy Barinas Zulia States carried 9 7 4 Popular vote 1,710,722 1,326,287 1,276,506 Percentage 30.5% 23.6% 22.7%

President before election Carlos Andrés Pérez AD Elected President Rafael Caldera CVGV

General elections were held in Venezuela on 5 December 1993.^[1] The presidential elections were won by Rafael Caldera of National Convergence, who received 30.5% of the vote.^[2] Democratic Action remained the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, which were elected on separate ballots for the first time.^[3] Voter turnout was 60.2%, the lowest since World War II.^[4]

Background

The election campaign was dominated by the corruption charges brought against sitting President Carlos Andrés Pérez, which led to his impeachment on 20 May 1993. He was replaced by Octavio Lepage as Acting President until Ramón José Velásquez was elected by Congress as interim President on 5 June. An atmosphere of economic and political crisis prevailed, with general economic problems compounded by a banking crisis, and a declining legitimacy of the traditional main parties, Democratic Action and Copei. The previous year had seen two coup attempts in February and November, reflecting widespread popular discontent with the political establishment.

Rafael Caldera, founder of Copei, rejected his old party and led a "National Convergence" of 17 smaller parties - including the Movement for Socialism, the Democratic Republican Union, the People's Electoral Movement and the Communist Party of Venezuela. His campaign promises included pardoning the 1992 coup plotters, including Hugo Chávez.

The Congressional elections were the first held under a mixed member proportional representation system,^[5] modelled on the German system, with some variations.^[6] The traditionally dominant Democratic Action and Copei "supported it because it looked the most like the system under which they had prospered".^[5] The MMP system continued to use the old formula of assigning seats to states based on multiplying the total population by 0.55%, with a minimum of three deputies from each state (thus over-representing sparsely populated states).^[5] Half each state's seats were then elected in single seat districts, and the remainder by closed party list. Parties could receive up to five additional seats based on their national vote total, to provide greater proportionality.^[7]

Results

President

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Rafael Caldera	National Convergence	1,710,722	30.5
Claudio Fermín	Democratic Action	1,326,287	23.6
Oswaldo Álvarez Paz	Copei	1,276,506	22.7
Andrés Velásquez	Radical Cause	1,232,653	21.9
Modesto Rivero	Authentic Renewal Organisation	20,814	0.4
Nelso Ojeda Valenzuela	FPI	18,690	0.3
Luis Alberto Machado	RDLI	6,851	0.1
Fernando Bianco	CEM	5,590	0.1
José Antonio Cova	New Democratic Generation	4,937	0.1
Gabriel Puerta Aponte	Movement for Popular Democracy	3,746	0.1
Rhona Otolina	Formula 1	3,633	0.1
Romuló Abreu Duarte	FEVO	1,554	0.0
Jesús Tang	National Party	1,251	0.0
Blas García Núñez	PEV	1,198	0.0
Juán Chacín	PODIN	981	0.0
Carmen de González	Nationalist Civic Crusade	866	0.0
Felix Díaz Ortega	New Order	780	0.0
Temistocles Fernández	IT	640	0.0
Invalid/blank votes		212,517	–
Total		5,829,216	100
Source: Nohlen

Senate

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/-
Democratic Action	1,165,322	24.1	16	-6
Copei	1,103,896	22.8	14	-6
Radical Cause	1,005,816	20.8	9	+9
National Convergence	650,352	13.4	6	New
Movement for Socialism	526,197	10.9	5	–
Authentic Renewal Organisation	41,157	0.9	0	0
People's Electoral Movement	26,545	0.5	0	0
Democratic Republican Union	25,732	0.5	0	0
National Integration Movement	23,459	0.5	0	New
Communist Party of Venezuela	14,159	0.3	0	0
Emerging People	10,709	0.2	0	New
147 Other parties	242,000	5.0	0	–
Invalid/blank votes	1,117,998	–	–	–
Total	5,829,216	100	50	+4
Source: Nohlen

Chamber of Deputies

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/-
Democratic Action	1,099,728	23.3	55	-42
Copei	1,065,512	22.6	53	-14
Radical Cause	974,190	20.7	40	+37
National Convergence	651,918	13.8	26	New
Movement for Socialism	509,068	10.8	24	–
Authentic Renewal Organisation	41,085	0.9	1	-1
National Integration Movement	29,433	0.6	1	New
People's Electoral Movement	27,635	0.6	1	-1
Democratic Republican Union	26,299	0.6	1	-1
Communist Party of Venezuela	21,180	0.4	0	-1
New Democratic Generation	264,996	5.6	1	-5
Other parties			0	–
Invalid/blank votes	1,117,998	–	–	–
Total	5,829,216	100	203	+2
Source: Nohlen

Popular Vote
AD			23.34%
COPEI			22.62%
LCR			20.68%
CVGV			13.84%
MAS			10.81%
Others			8.72%

Seats
AD			27.09%
COPEI			26.11%
LCR			19.70%
CVGV			12.81%
MAS			11.82%
Others			2.46%

Aftermath

Andrés Velásquez of Radical Cause gained 22%, and "filed complaints of irregularities, saying that officials from his party were prevented from witnessing vote counting."^[8]

References

1. Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p555 ISBN 978-0-19-928358-3
2. Nohlen, p582
3. Nohlen, p575
4. Nohlen, p556
5. Crisp, BF % Rey, JC (2003) "The Sources of Electoral Reform in Venezuela", in Shugart, Matthew Soberg, and Martin P. Wattenberg, Mixed-Member Electoral Systems - The Best of Both Worlds?, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. pp. 173-194(22)
6. Crisp and Rey(2003:189)
7. Crisp and Rey (2003:188)
8. Venezuela Apparently Returns Former President to Power Los Angeles Times, 6 December 1993