Katy says: Gerardo Blyde is a keen analyst and one of the finest minds in Venezuelan politics. In an article published in today's El Universal, Blyde makes the case for primaries, among other things he touches upon. In it, he says that primaries "with a simple, manual voting procedure and a transparent count of all the ballots, will be a clear signal to the world of just how democratic the Venezuelan opposition is, and that when it trusts the referee and the rules are clear and applied to all, it is capable of mobilizing and voting."
A neat idea: primaries to gain legitimacy, so that if and when push comes to shove and we have to take a more radical position, the image of the non-chavista camp voting in a clear election is still fresh on people's minds. Whether you are an abstentionist or not, it is hard to argue that it is better for the world to have this image of what the opposition is about than this other one.
