VENEZUELA: Allies of Hugo Chavez were victorious in yesterday’s congressional elections, winning 114 out of 167 seats, more than 2/3rds of the seats. Opposition parties dropped out of the campaign on grounds of bias by electoral authorities. Voter turnout was approximately 25%.
KAZAKHSTAN: President Nursultan Nazarbayev won reelection in a 91% landslide. International observers said the vote was flawed, citing ballot box stuffing and intimidation, while Nazarbayev, who has ruled since 1989, touted it as a success compared to the democratic revolution in Kyrgyzstan: “We’re talking not about revolutions but evolutions.”
Both countries have lots of oil. Both countries are led by authoritarian strongmen legitimized by elections. Can you spot the differences? Chavez is an anti-capitalist populist who is a disaster for his country’s economy; Nazarbayev is no democrat, but he’s a Meiji-style modernist. A decade from now, Kazakhstan will be better off than Venezuela and it will be thanks to their leader.
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COMMENTS / 4 COMMENTS
IJ added these pithy words on 05 Dec 05 at 2:06 pm“Chavez is an anti-capitalist populist who is a disaster for his country’s economy; Nazarbayev is no democrat, but he’s a Meiji-style modernist. A decade from now, Kazakhstan will be better off than Venezuela and it will be thanks to their leader.”
It depends on the direction of international politics. The International Herald Tribune publishes the views of some oil experts who doubt that the current rules of the market are the best way forward for energy.
In particular, it is suggested that the invasion of Iraq effectively wiped out a $1 billion investment by the Chinese to develop Iraqi fields.There is probably more to it, but enforceable rule-sets are surely needed for the global economy.
Heather added these pithy words on 05 Dec 05 at 4:05 pmYou’ve got a beautiful blog design! Congratulations on being a Weblog Awards finalist and best wishes to your success.
felipe the latinlover added these pithy words on 06 Dec 05 at 3:36 amhey here in venezuela the abtention in the election of the vote was of 90 % not the 25 % that say the goverment,
and that is election was victory and defeat for the goverment n the same thing was a victory and defeat of the oposition why?
because maybe chavez have the 100 % of the congres but was show that 90 % are against or just dont like chavez, so were is the great mass of venezuela that supported him, he say he will win the election with 8 millions of votes for he only could obtain a 1.200.000 votes so in that sense he loose,the oposition loss all the representation in the street but the oposition leader, get back the conection with the people because the all the people was asking to the oposition leader dont want more electoral fraud we want movemenst action, like the orange revolution in ukraine or like the revolt in ecuador, understaind
for more information you can go to http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/2005/12/05.html#a2633
bye
davesgonechina added these pithy words on 06 Dec 05 at 4:29 amYknow I can’t help thinking that part of their policies being a success has something to do with how much they cooperate with the U.S.
I think it’s too soon to tell if Nazarbayev is making the better economic choices – Chavez is clearly taking the bigger gamble with his anti-U.S. position, while Nazarbayev isn’t attracting the same ire. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t still a bastard.
