Deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez voted in last month’s controversial election to replace him, an audit of the results has revealed.
According to reports, the absentee ballot cast before his death was marked for opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
A note written alongside the ballot explained that Chavez thought Maduro was a "cheap imitation" of himself, and he prefered to vote for the more sincere opposition, despite their policy differences.
The shocking revelation comes amid high tensions between pro-government and anti-government supporters in the wake of a special presidential election held to replace Chavez, the controversial left-wing firebrand who died March 5 at age 58 following a long battle with cancer.
Official election results declared that Chavez’s Vice President Nicolas Maduro narrowly defeated Capriles by less than 2 percent. But Capriles and Venezuela’s political opposition demanded a vote-by-vote recount of the presidential election, claiming the election was stolen.
But in its audit of the votes, Venezuela’s electoral council, CNE, disovered Chavez's official ballot in the country’s capital Caracas.
The CNE said Chavez “cast a vote for Henrique Capriles as a registered voter in Caracas’s first district, which includes the presidential palace.”
“Since Chavez was, of course, unable to take part in the election,” CNE spokesman Alberto Capóne said, “the only reasonable explanation was that our dear leader had great foresight to cast a vote ahead of time."
'El Gran Imitador'
Because it was Chavez's death which triggered the special election to replace him, under Venezuelan law his ballot would have legally counted if sent at the exact moment of his death.
Although the socialist strongman had strongly supported Maduro, according to a note written on the margins of his ballot he had a change of heart in his last days.
"Although I once had great respect for Maduro," the note reads, "in the past few weeks I have come to see him as little more than a lightweight version of myself.
"He may be a loyal Chavista. But he has no style, no charisma, no panache. I've seen him try to connect on television - he looks like a piece of dead wood trying to float upstream.
"I disagree with Henrique Capriles on nearly every issue. But I would rather vote for someone who is his own man than someone who has no personality of his own and only copies someone else's policies."
A spokesperson for Capriles says he has no comment on the matter.
Nos gustaría recordar a nuestros lectores venezolanos que este artículo es la sátira. Los eventos descritos aquí no sucedió.
