Venezuela: The Life and Times of the Party System - Political ...

voting in the selection of municipal councils (1989). 1 The introduction of separate elections for
the municipal councils had at least two important consequences: first, it granted political
relevance and identity to local government, generating the conditions for increased autonomy;
and second, it created new political space for competition with new electoral opportunities for
smaller parties and groups.
Party representation in the councils is now more diverse than would have resulted from
merely repeating at the municipal level the results of national legislative elections (see Molina
1986 and 1991b). Although AD and COPEI have continued to obtain the highest vote shares in
all municipal contests since 1978, the creation of new spaces for party and electoral competition
has tended to favor minority parties and factions. This is especially true for MAS, and most
recently for Causa R. For example, in the 1978 elections MAS won 6.16 percent of the legislative
vote, and the Left as a whole won 13.5 percent. In the municipal elections of 1979, competing as
a united bloc, the Left’s share of the vote rose to 16.36 percent. In the municipal elections of
1984 MAS gained 7.21 percent of the vote, as opposed to only 5.75 percent in the legislative
elections of 1983. Finally, in the recent elections of 1989, MAS-MIR (the two parties merged)
captured 18.0 percent of the vote at the municipal level, (as opposed to 10.2 percent in the
previous year’s legislative elections) despite an absolute decline of 20,000 votes. 2 Although MAS
increased its percentage of the total vote, in absolute terms the party’s vote decreased by more
than 58,000 due to the growing proportion of the electorate abstaining. Causa R’s vote in the
1989 elections was heavily concentrated in urban areas, above all Ciudad Guayana and Caracas.
Since many smaller parties tend to manifest a higher degree of militancy than is the case in the
larger party organizations, in relative terms they have benefited from rising rates of abstention.
Municipal reform also affected internal party dynamics. Separate elections for councilors
have legitimized municipal politics as a relevant political space within the system. Consequently,
groups that compete successfully within this new sphere have acquired greater autonomy and
legitimacy within their respective parties, as well as a basis for questioning the continued
dominance of traditional party elites. 3 The need to take into account local criteria in the
1 Here we have taken into account modifications of the Ley Orgánica del Sufragio in 1978 and
1979, the promulgation of the Ley Orgánica del Régimen Municipal in 1978, and the promulgation
of the Ley de Elección Directa de los Gobernadores de Estado in 1988. Still under discussion are
the Ley de Partidos Políticos, Reuniones Públicas, y Manifestaciones and additional changes in
the Ley Orgánica del Sufragio.
2 Data are from the CSE.
3 For example, in March 1979 the National Executive Committee of Acción Democrática
issued its “Rules for the Selection of Candidates for Municipal Councils.” These rules established
that in the selection of primary candidates for ayuntamientos, the party’s District Committee “must
consult the opinion of the ranks of party activists, through assemblies made up of the directors of
local committees” and must also solicit “the opinion of neighborhood associations in the
community.” See Gil (1986).