The politics of Venezuela are conducted under what is nominally a federal presidential republic, but is in practice an authoritarian system of government. Prior to the early 1990s, Venezuela was considered an unusually long-standing and stable liberal democracy in Latin America, having transitioned to democracy in 1958. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Venezuela was in 2023 the third least electoral democratic country in Latin America.
The Fifth Republic Movement was a socialist political party in Venezuela. It was founded in July 1997, following a national congress of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, to support the candidacy of Hugo Chávez, the former President of Venezuela, in the 1998 presidential election. The "Fifth Republic" refers to the fact that in 1997 the Republic of Venezuela was the fourth in Venezuelan history, and the Movement aimed to re-found the Republic through a constituent assembly. Following Chávez' 1998 election victory, this took place in 1999, leading to the 1999 Constitution of Venezuela.
Elections in Venezuela are held at a national level for the President of Venezuela as head of state and head of government, and for a unicameral legislature. The President of Venezuela is elected for a six-year term by direct election plurality voting, and is eligible for re-election. The National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) has 277 members (diputados), elected for five-year terms using a mixed-member majoritarian representation system. Elections also take place at state level and local level.
COPEI, also referred to as the Social Christian Party or Green Party, is a Christian democratic party in Venezuela. The acronym stands for Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente, but this provisional full name has fallen out of use. The party was influential during the twentieth century as a signatory of the Puntofijo Pact and influenced many politicians throughout Latin America at its peak.
María Corina Machado Parisca is a Venezuelan opposition politician and industrial engineer who served as an elected member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2014. Machado entered politics in 2002 as the founder and leader of the vote-monitoring group Súmate, alongside Alejandro Plaz. She is the National Coordinator of political party, Vente Venezuela. In 2018, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. Machado is regarded as a leading figure of the Venezuelan opposition; the Nicolás Maduro government in Venezuela has banned Machado from leaving Venezuela.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela is a socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2007. It was formed from a merger of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivarian Revolution led by President Hugo Chávez.
Regional elections were held in Venezuela on 23 November 2008 to choose 22 governors and 2 metropolitan mayors. The candidates were selected for a term beginning in 2008 and ending in 2012, when the next regional elections will be held. The 2008 regional elections were the second during the government of Hugo Chávez Frías and the first since he founded the United Socialist Party.
Henri Falcón Fuentes is a Venezuelan politician, lawyer, and retired Bolivarian Army non-commissioned officer. He served as mayor for two consecutive terms of Barquisimeto, Iribarren Municipality from 2000 to 2008 and as Governor of Lara from 2008 until 2017. He was a candidate in the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election.
The Democratic Unity Roundtable was a catch-all electoral coalition of Venezuelan political parties formed in January 2008 to unify the opposition to President Hugo Chávez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela in the 2010 Venezuelan parliamentary election. A previous opposition umbrella group, the Coordinadora Democrática, had collapsed after the failure of the 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum.
Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on 7 October 2012 to choose a president for a six-year term beginning in January 2013.
The primary elections of the Unity Roundtable were held on February 12, 2012, and determined the presidential candidate of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) for the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election, which were held on October 7, As well as their candidates in the coming regional and municipal elections, to be held in December 2012 and December 2013 respectively. These were the first open presidential primaries in the history of Venezuela, and the largest of its kind and in participation in world history.
The Authentic Renewal Organization (ORA) is an Evangelical and Pentecostal political party in Venezuela, originally founded in 1988 by Godofredo Marín and Carlos Mendez.
Parliamentary elections were held in Venezuela on 6 December 2020. Aside from the 167 deputies of the National Assembly who are eligible to be re-elected, the new National Electoral Council president announced that the assembly would increase by 110 seats, for a total of 277 deputies to be elected.
Reinaldo José Quijada Cervoni is a Venezuelan engineer and politician. He was a candidate in the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election, in which he received 36,132 votes.
Regional and municipal elections were held in Venezuela on 21 November 2021. In the elections, all executive and legislative positions of the 23 federal entities, as well as that of the 335 municipalities of the country, were renewed.
Wilmer José Azuaje Cordero is a Venezuelan politician that has served as deputy in the National Assembly for Barinas state and as a Barinas regional deputy.
Venezuelan opposition to the Chavista governments of former President Hugo Chávez and current President Nicolás Maduro, commonly referred to as the Venezuelan opposition, or sometimes, anti-Chavismo, is a political umbrella term used to describe political, social and religious movements that have opposed Chavismo, and the associated Bolivarian Revolution political process since 2 February 1999.
Movement for Direct Democracy was a Venezuelan far-left political party, which was officially founded in April 2000. It was dissolved on January 7, 2007, after it's leadership decided to merge MDD with the newly founded United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in support of Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chávez. MDD describes itself as a civic-military political movement that identifies with the Bolivarian and Anti-Capitalist ideals, it focuses on promoting Bolivarian Revolution and Direct Democracy throughout South American continent.
Union Party was a Venezuelan center-left political party founded in 2001 by Francisco Arias Cárdenas. It was dissolved in 2007 after merging with PSUV. Throughout its existence Union opposed and then supported candidacy of Hugo Chávez on various occasions.
