Jorge Rodriguez: The Arrogant Loser*
By Tomas Sancio | Venezuelan Politics
09.08.05 | Even by the CNE's own projections, very few people went to vote. According to the El Nacional
headlines, less than 30% of the people voted yesterday. Although I
don't have any data as to why they didn't show up, it must have been
either because they didn't trust the CNE, because they had other stuff
to do on a Sunday and/or because they didn't know who they were
electing. I am among those who don't know what the "Junta Parroquial"
does, even if they are supposed to be our direct representatives.
If
you hear Jorge Rodríguez (the CNE President) say it, the absenteeism
was lower than the historical maximum of 76%. In other words, the
person that doesn't pay attention to calls from organizations like SUMATE to clean up the voters registry and calls a paper by Harvard Professor Ricardo Haussman
"Daffy Duck theories", is now keeping solace in the fact that there
were previous elections in which even less people showed up. The "joke"
came up because Haussman mentions in his paper the "black swan" theory.
Daffy Duck
looks a bit like a "black swan". Find it funny? It probably would be
funny if that joke wasn't on the millions of voters that felt cheated
in last year's Presidential Recall.
You can only make fun of
others if you feel supported and you have a winning streak. Rodríguez's
arrogant thinking ignored the needs of the people that were working in
the election centers and extended the voting hours in the midst of
empty tables. Yesterday, the CNE President set high standards for
himself and failed miserably. He is now taking the route of the
mediocre people and saying that others have been worse. In effect,
Rodríguez has wasted the country's money by setting up an expensive
party (who needs the electronic fingerprint readers?) for 100 and less
than 30 showed up.
But this man cannot feel comfortable:
unless you want to admit that the opposition is a majority, a very high
amount of Chávez supporters did not vote out of apathy. The CNE
wouldn't have cared if it were only the people from the opposition who
didn't show up. Now, they have to figure out how to gain the right
momentum to get enough voters to push their candidates for the upcoming
National Assembly elections. Will the Assemblymen trust the "perfect"
CNE President this time around?
Silver Lining: According to the first results published by El Nacional,
Chávez and his people were not able to wrest control from Leopoldo
López (the Mayor of Chacao) and Henrique Capriles Radonski (the Mayor
of Baruta). Living in Baruta, there are some things that I don't like
about the Mayor's work (why aren't there basketball hoops in most of
the cracked courts) but overall I find that he has done a decent job.
Hence, I voted for his people. Some people find this contradictory that
I "support" the CNE, please read here.
*Original title The Arrogant Loser
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