12:31 AM next day
The day ended in near disaster. I was stuck in traffic at La Victoria while these asshole chavistas exited in a complete chaos the premises. There my battery cell phone run low so I had to keep it for phone calls.
Then there was a multiple car crash at the Caracas entry in Tazon and I staid there almost 3 hours, running out of gas almost. I had to save the last fumes by going down all the hill in neutral, engine off. By the time I heard Perez excellent concession speech I had enough of it all and turned off the radio.
These episodes today deserve a post on their own with the details that show how degraded a country we live in.
So no analysis tonight, I just heard some news while I ate a cold slice of pizza arriving home, left who knows when. I may just finish me off through food poisoning....
1:45 PM
DO NOT BELIEVE ANY EXIT POLL OR WHATEVER! There is no need for them, no one has money for them, they are extremely casual at best. I am sure that some polling of sorts exist but it has to do more with motivation and market research more than actual winners. Most parties have people at their tables and the atmosphere is friendly and good overall. There is simply no need to invest in an expensive, unreliable and useless poll. This because I already see creeps giving results! There are none. Period. Do not believe any journalists, not even Ocando in Miami and perhaps him the last as who knows who is feeding him data.
1:33 PM
After many troubles including a broken key requiring locksmith work on a Sunday AM I managed to vote. Did some tweetering from there. Lines were longer and getting longer with three hours left to vote. And the excellent news is that at my voting center, a fiefdom of opposition, almost half of the people had already voted. I think that we are truly in our way to pass the 2 million mark and seen other less opposition centers in San Felipe with long lines too I think we could well reach a 2.5 million score which would be fantastic!!!!
And the regime knows it. It has put pressure on Venevision and Televen, the lone remaining private national networks NOT to cover the primaries, only Globovision does. Instead they are covering completely Chavez speech from La Victoria as if it were a cadena..... Of course Chavez will not dare call for a cadena today with all the foreign visitors in town. Cadenas are only for our private times between us and our wannabe dictator, when nobody is watching. So I am in fact glad because it proves to us what a resounding success these primaries are so far. Until the hardest part comes when all rally around the winner tonight, hopefully....
And now I am off to Caracas. Follow me on twitter for the next 4-5 hours at least.
9:57AM
Even though my two most visited posts were "election day posts" I will have to pass today. For a variety of reasons I will be leaving for Caracas shortly after voting in the next hour or so. In what will be at least a 4 hours drive I doubt very much that I can open my lap top anywhere. So why pretend? Instead I will be live tweeting the whole thing at @danielduquenal if you wish to follow (follow me for today only, I will not be upset if you un-follow me tomorrow). After all, I will be driving by where chavismo is doing its counter show at La Victoria where they even hired all sorts of musical groups to take out of their followers mind any idea of going to vote . Who knows, maybe some twit pic will come out of it. Also when I arrive in Caracas I may be able to hang out in some of the head quarters waiting for the results and there only twitter has a chance to work.
This being said, if I arrive too tired in Caracas, or my contacts do not come through, I will retake this post after 3-4 PM to blog live results and reactions. So let's call this the first entry at 9:57 AM.
Meanwhile, I am glad to report that as seen on TV all seems to work out, there is no trouble worth reporting and that modest to decent lines are observed in many polling stations. Also the overseas voting seem to be in general a success. Something that for sure will strengthen the CNE resolve to make it as difficult as possible the registration of people overseas for October.
See you shortly if I can vote fast and furious, and gain a few minutes to report on Yaracuy voting.