MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Opposition boycotts Venezuelan Sunday congressional poll

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez accused the opposition of trying to derail Sunday's congressional election because they have no popular support.

The main opposition parties pulled out of the poll on Tuesday accusing the Electoral Council of privileging pro government candidates.

Venezuelans will be voting Sunday for an expanded 167 seat congress where supporters of President already have a comfortable majority. But the government has vowed to increase its majority to two-thirds, which would allow it to pass constitutional reforms that opposition leaders strongly reject.

"What fraud are they talking about? Let's face it: they have no popular support because it was them precisely who betrayed and stabbed in the back, one, ten a hundred times the heroic Venezuelan people", said President Chavez adding that the opposition was plotting to destabilize the country with United States financial backing.

"There's only one word to define the situation: political sabotage and they are targeting not only Sunday but December 2006 presidential election", emphasized Chavez.

However Henry Ramos leader of the main opposition party Democratic Action said his only concern was that fairness and neutrality by electoral authorities was not ensured for next Sunday.

Mr Ramos said Democratic Action was demanding a suspension of the elections until equal conditions existed for parties and claimed in a press conference that the computerised voter registration machines were unreliable.

"The electoral roll is contaminated and the voting machines have serious shortcomings which makes the whole election a fraudulent process. Under these conditions we can't participate, besides the fact that four out of five members of the Electoral Council are totally submitted to the government".

Members of the Electoral Council have repeatedly denied accusations of a pro-government bias. The poll on Sunday will be overseen by observers from the Organization of American States and the European Union.

Last Monday Electoral Council president Jorge Rodriguez announced the temporary suspension of the finger print reading machines following claims from the opposition that the equipment violated secret balloting.

Project Venezuela and the Social Christian party leader Henrique Salas Romer later said they too were withdrawing and called for a suspension.

"Popular sovereignty has been ridiculed, mocked", and there are "no guarantees or transparency", highlighted Mr. Salas Romer.

The Copei Social Christians requested this week that elections be deferred until "a trust mechanism can be established and we can sit to discuss conditions".

But political analysts are not pleased with Venezuela's two main opposition parties stance.

Luis Vicente Leon from Datanálisis said this "represents a disaster for the opposition" because it will further fracture opposition to Mr. Chavez and weaken the possibility of an electoral option.

"The opposition abstention is brutal; there's no party that can stand such impact. The loss will be dramatic for all parties as far as Congressional representation?plus the savage institutional fragility imposed on the system", stressed Mr. Leon.

Divisions within the opposition are likely to contribute to a landslide government victory, which would give President Chavez complete control of congress.

Accion Democratica currently has 23 of the 79 opposition seats in Congress and Project Venezuela 7.