Faced with the socioeconomic situation that Venezuela is going through since 2013, 55% of Venezuelans prefer the current President, Nicolás Maduro, to resolve this situation, before a government comes from the opposition, a condition that also places him as a favorite for this year’s elections, says a recent study by Hinterlaces.
According to this investigation, carried out in January, 69% of those interviewed distrust that sectors adverse to the Bolivarian Revolution can apply effective measures to overcome the current situation, marked by maneuvers against the production and the purchasing power of Venezuelans.
“Faced with the lack of alternative, all the attention of the Venezuelan society is concentrated in what Maduro does or not”, indicated the president of the polling company, Oscar Schémel, who said the people sees the current dignitary as the only one dedicated to face the situation.
An evidence of this concern in the delivery of protective bonds through the Carnet de la Patria (Homeland Card) system, which provide direct subsidies to the most vulnerable sectors of the population.
“Most Venezuelans know that they are not enough, most of them expect fundamental solutions in the economic field, fundamentally, but the bonuses mean a help and, above all, a demonstration of affection, closeness and class identification. The President becomes the protector”, said Schémel on the “Vladimir a la 1” (Vladimir at 1) program, aired on the private channel Globovisión.
Advantage around 10%:
The director of Hinterlaces explained that Maduro, proclaimed candidate for the upcoming presidential elections by Chavez forces, has an initial support of 33% of the electorate. Thus, part with an advantage of 10 percentage points on its closest contender.
This percentage was determined under the question: “Who would you choose as President of the Republic?”, Without a list of prior names, which allowed respondents to respond according to what they have in mind.
According to the study, 69% will vote in the upcoming elections. Of that group, 91% said that they will pay for Maduro in the elections scheduled for the first four months of 2018.
This advantage responds, according to Schémel, to the organizational capacity of Chavismo against the fractures of the opposition. While the first political current is able to easily handle emotional climates, key on the eve of a political event, the second has lost the opportunity to articulate itself as an electoral structure.
The opposition has been unable “to put on the board an idea, a symbol and color, much less a face. Therefore, today the right wing suffers what the left wing suffered for many years: atomization, division, arrogance, the difficulty of connecting with the popular sectors.
In contrast, Maduro, although he has the challenge of improving his performance in economic matters, is doing well from the political and social. “If anyone knows what Venezuelan society is thinking, it’s Chavez.”
According to the president of Hinterlaces, in the coming elections will be key the proper management of the electoral machinery, the relationship with popular sectors, the knowledge of popular sensitivity and the “vote of faith”, which is moving in Venezuelans to pay for solutions.