Venezuelan Opposition Due to Snatch Defeat From Jaws of Victory

Yet, come legislative elections in December, the opposition probably won’t win a big enough majority to recover power. Its fractured 27 parties, cronyism and robust neglect of the hinterland are expected to help keep it from the needed threshold to unseat the socialists, in power since Hugo Chavez drove it from office in 1999. Given the growing push by his successor, Nicolas Maduro, to intimidate the media, imprison critics and warn darkly of unrest -- along with the Byzantine nature of the electoral system and declining voter participation -- Maduro’s coalition is polling enough to survive its biggest challenge ever. “The opposition are the odds-on favorite but their position is very shallow,” said David Smilde, a sociology professor who writes about Venezuela at Tulane University in New Orleans. “They haven’t been able to convert the dissatisfaction with the regime into identification with their movement.”More…