Why Venezuela's Presidential Election Matters

Hwang Jeongeun (General Secretary) 

Venezuela's Presidential Election on July 28th 

Venezuela held presidential elections on July 28th. Incumbent President Nicolas Maduro ran for a third term (2025-2031) as a candidate supported by the United Socialist Party (PSUV) and 12 progressive leftist parties. The opposition has nine candidates in the race, but Edmundo González is considered the leading challenger to the ruling party. Marina Corina Machado, the original opposition presidential candidate, was disqualified by the Supreme Court after being charged with inciting violent anti-government protests in 2017, favoring sanctions against Venezuela, and calling for military intervention in the country. Her replacement is Edmundo González, a retired diplomat without any political experience. 

Candidates for the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election. 13 progressive leftist parties, including the United Socialist Party, are backing incumbent President Nicolas Maduro. (Source: AP) 

Current President Nicolas Maduro promised to continue the Bolivarian revolution against the U.S.-led imperialist aggression and support a multipolar world. In his presidential campaign, Maduro proposed the “Homeland Plan of the Seven Transformations 2025-2031”. The platform includes: economic prosperity and diversification; sovereignty and political independence; peace and security; ecological practices and natural disaster management; strengthening social programs, including housing policies; promoting anti-imperialism, regional integration, and cooperation with Global South countries; and consolidation of popular power and the communal projects. The opposition was campaigning on ending Nicolas Maduro's “dictatorship,” strengthening the alliance with the United States, and privatizing the oil industry.

President Nicolas Maduro campaigns with his platform on July 25 (local time) during his final election campaign. (Photograph: Hwang Jeongeun)

Potential For Fraud?

Even before the election, there have already been reports suggesting that Venezuela would have electoral fraud. Maria Corina Machado told the media that the only way President Nicolas Maduro could win this election is to rig the election on a massive scale. 

However, Venezuela's electoral process is known to be a difficult system to manipulate. Voters cast a ballot on an electronic device, selecting the candidate of their choice on the screen, which prompts them to confirm. Once the vote is confirmed, the electronic device produces a confirmation slip, which the voter places in the ballot box. At the polling station, there are observers nominated by each party to watch the entire process and ensure that everything goes smoothly. After the voting is over, a random sample of more than 50 percent of all electronic devices is selected to compare the number of votes cast on the devices with the number of verification slips in the ballot box to confirm the results. Electronic voting machines are not connected to the internet, so they are safe from hacking, and the process of deploying them is transparent and difficult to tamper with. In addition, the Venezuelan government has invited more than 800 international election observers from more than 180 countries to monitor the voting process. 

A session explaining the Venezuelan voting process to international observers (Photo: Hwang Jeongeun)

Bolivarian Revolution Defends Elections Against Coups And Unilateral Sanctions

Venezuela has held more than 30 elections (including presidential, general, local, and referendums) in the past 25 years since 1998, when former President Hugo Chávez was first elected. In effect, there’s been an election every 10 months. It's been called an electoral revolution. Nonetheless, the opposition did not recognize the government of Nicolas Maduro, who was elected in the 2018 presidential election. Instead, they established an interim government in 2019, led by Juan Guaidó, then president of the National Assembly. This led to the United States and its allies (including South Korea) recognizing the interim government as the official government of Venezuela, rather than the democratically elected government of Nicolas Maduro. 

Furthermore, since 2015, Venezuela has been unilaterally sanctioned by the United States and its allies. In addition to freezing Venezuelan assets in the U.S. and abroad, the sanctions prohibit the trade and commerce of oil, Venezuela's main source of revenue. In March 2023, Venezuelanalysis.com reported that the economic blockade and sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies had killed nearly 100,000 people, left 300,000 people with chronic illness untreated and 31.4 percent of the population undernourished. Despite these challenges, Venezuela has continued to increase domestic production and provided more than 5 million homes through its housing mission. 

Why We Should Care 

Venezuela is in the midst of a revolution that is challenging U.S.unipolar order in favor of a multipolar one. Of course, Venezuela has issues to address, such as corruption and economic hardship. However, the Bolivarian Revolution, a 25-year-old process of direct democracy that transfers power to the people, has strengthened the communes and continues to ensure the basic needs of people by promoting social programs such as free healthcare and housing missions. 

In addition, the Bolivarian process fosters regional cooperation in Latin America. The Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of the Americas—The People's Trade Partnership (ALBA-TCP) continues to promote solidarity-based trade and cooperation. This is why the majority of Venezuelans have chosen the current government for 25 years, and why Latin American and Caribbean countries stand in solidarity with it. 

As South Korea strengthens the alliance with the U.S, most of the news about Venezuela is reported according to the mainstream Western media. For example, the media characterizes Nicolas Maduro as a “dictatorship” just because it is in its third term. However, it is important for us to follow the Bolivarian Revolution as it continues to advance direct democracy, social programs that guarantee people's basic needs, and trade based on solidarity. This is because they give hope that a different society is possible away from a world where capitalism widens the gap between rich and poor, where meeting basic needs is cast as an individual responsibility, and where the will of the people is not reflected in politics. 

I write this from Venezuela, as an international observer for the presidential election, and I'm eagerly awaiting the results of the presidential election on Sunday (July 28).