Parliamentary elections in Venezuela (2015)

Since 2000, in the elections to the National Assembly, the majority has consistently received political forces that supported President Hugo Chavez . During the 2005 parliamentary elections, leading opposition parties refused to participate, as a result of which the ruling party Movement for the Fifth Republic and other political forces that supported Chavez received all the seats in the National Assembly.

To participate in the 2010 elections, a block of opposition parties, the Round Table of Democratic Unity , was formed, which managed to get 64 seats. The Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (ESPV), which was formed by Chavez on the basis of the Movement for the Fifth Republic and a number of small left parties, gained 96 seats and retained a majority in the assembly, but lost a qualified majority for which it is necessary to have two-thirds and three-fifths of the parliament. The remaining two places were won by a small left-wing political party, Fatherland for All .

After the death of Chavez in 2013 , Nicolas Maduro , whom Chavez himself called his successor, was elected president by a small margin from his rival. In this post, he continued the policy of Chavez. On the eve of the elections, the “Round Table of Democratic Unity” announced that it intends to improve its results compared to previous elections and put an end to the monopoly of the ESPR government, while Maduro said that he believes in his voters who will help those who continue the Bolivarian revolution to maintain a majority.

In 2014, a number of protests and demonstrations took place in Venezuela. The protests were triggered by inflation , rising crime, and a shortage of consumer goods in Venezuela. The protests were mostly peaceful, although some ended in an escalation of violence from both the protesters and the authorities. The government accused the organization of protests of the "fascist" opposition leaders, capitalists and foreign states. At the same time, the opposition, in turn, accused the country's authorities of censorship , political arrests and support for groups, the so-called "collectives", who committed violence against demonstrators and the latter.

Since 2015, 167 members of the National Assembly are elected by a mixed majority system; 113 members are elected by the election system, where the winner is the one who receives the majority of the vote in 87 constituencies. 51 deputies are elected by closed ballot from voters in 23 states and the Federal District . Seats in the National Assembly are distributed between parties using the d'Ondt method . Three more seats are reserved for indigenous representatives and deputies are elected accordingly by the local community.

On May 17, the opposition coalition held preliminary elections in 33 of 87 constituencies in order to identify candidates for 42 seats in the National Assembly; an additional 125 candidates are expected to be selected by consensus among party leaders. Later, the election rules were amended, and now 40% of the candidates should be women, the authorities also forbade several popular opposition candidates from traveling outside the state, a step that experts called unconstitutional. On June 28, the EHPR held its primary in all 87 constituencies and stated that 3,162,400 voters participated, although some Bolivian observers reported a significantly smaller number of voters who participated in the election — less than 1 million, or about 5 % of voters.

On October 10, 2015, representatives of Brazil refused to participate in the joint observer mission, whose task was to work in the elections in Venezuela. They stated that the reason for such a move was the lack of guarantees from the government of that state, as well as the prohibition of choosing the head of the delegation.

The first results were published by the head of the National Electoral Council, Tibisai Lucena, at 12:30 on December 7 , more than 6 hours after the closure of polling stations. According to them, the Round Table of Democratic Unity bloc won 99 seats in the National Assembly, and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela received only 46 seats. The fate of the remaining 22 seats was to be determined later. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, commenting on the statement of Lucena, said that the elections were held and recognized the victory of the opposition, calling the results of the vote a victory of the Constitution and democracy. ^{[5] [6] [7]} On the evening of December 7, the National Electoral Council announced new data on the distribution of seats, according to which, the number of mandates of the opposition increased to 110, and that of the EPRW to 55. ^[8]

The National Electoral Council announced the final results on December 8 , more than two days after the end of the election. According to them, the Round Table of Democratic Unity bloc won 112 seats, counting three seats allotted to indigenous peoples and held by opposition supporters, while the pro-presidential block Great Patriotic Pole of Simon Bolivar (ESPR + Allies) won 55 seats. ^{[9] [10] [11]}