Venezuela Prepares Second ‘National Popular Consultation’ to Choose State-Funded Projects

• The countrywide vote will lead to the selection of a second batch of 4,505 local projects to be assigned US $10,000 each.

CARACAS, (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan people are heading to the polls on Sunday, August 25, for the second “National Popular Consultation” to decide on local projects that will receive government funding.

The vote will be held in 4,505 communal circuits spanning the entire Venezuelan territory to choose one winning proposal per circuit. Each circuit is centered on a commune, an assembly-driven popular power organization, which in turn brings together several communal councils, social property enterprises and social movements.

On Monday, Communes and Social Movements Minister, Ángel Prado, said that more than 49,000 communal councils held assemblies nationwide to nominate projects. The proposals were then discussed in communal circuit assemblies to reach a consensus on up to seven options to be submitted to the vote on Sunday.

“Popular power does a lot with few resources because the people execute efficiently. What we expect [from these consultations] is for communities to administer national resources and push governmental institutions to defend the interests of the people,” stated Prado while accompanying President Nicolás Maduro in his weekly TV program.

The week before, Maduro said that a consultation to pick local initiatives for state funding would take place four times a year. “Venezuela is building its own model of democracy and we do not need intervention. We have popular power, our Constitution and laws,” he stated.

All citizens 15 and above are eligible to participate. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) will oversee the election but without automatic voting machines. There will be one polling station in each commune supervised by a local leader with people from different communal councils acting as witnesses. The vote will take place between 8 am-6 pm.

The Maduro government will fund each of the 4,505 winning initiatives with an approximate budget of US $10,000. Grassroots collectives will then be responsible for executing projects and rendering accounts.

The results of the vote will be published on the SINCO platform run by the ministry of communes.

Projects are mostly centered on improving community life, with most options focusing on infrastructure and public service repairs, including building water wells and installing new electricity lines. Equipping and fixing productive units is likewise a top priority across communes.

In El Panal Commune in western Caracas, voters will be asked to choose between acquiring equipment for communal events (chairs, tables), a communal veterinary center, CCTV equipment, purchasing garbage containers, a brigade to undertake construction and maintenance works, repairing staircases and sidewalks or an internet center.

The Lanceros Atures de La Miel Commune in Lara state is presenting voters with a variety of options as well, from equipping and reactivating the commune’s socio-productive units, building a water well, a medical laboratory or a recreational promenade in the local Plaza Bolívar.

Other communes in Lara state are proposing to fix irrigation systems to ramp up food production, such as the Vencedores de Carorita Commune close to Barquisimeto.

For its part, the Ezequiel Zamora Socialist Commune, located in Barinas state, is asking voters to pick among seven large projects, among them building a communal house, a sports court and repairing two schools.

Venezuela held its first “National Popular Consultation” on April 21. The majority of the 4,347 approved initiatives were related to five main areas: water and electricity supply, roads, healthcare and environmental issues. According to a communes ministry source, 2,009 projects approved in April have already concluded, with 2,184 in progress and the remaining ones still clearing bureaucratic hurdles to receive funding.

On Monday, spokespeople from several communes joined Maduro in his TV broadcast to talk about their respective communities’ implementation of the state-funded projects.

Vanessa Pérez, from the Cinco Fortalezas de la Revolución Commune, in Cumanacoa town, Sucre state, stated drinking water pipes were successfully installed in several homes where families had no access to the service for more than 70 years.

“This is an achievement for us, an achievement for the whole country because it is the people saving the people,” said Pérez.

Similarly, Freddy Espinoza, from the Ruta de la Mandarina Commune in Miranda state, testified that the community had rehabilitated a road used to transport mandarine crops which had been damaged for 12 years.