People's Electoral Movement (Venezuela)

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People's Electoral Movement
Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo
LeaderLuis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa
Founded1967
Dissolved2007
Split fromDemocratic Action
Merged intoPSUV
IdeologySocialism
Left-wing nationalism
National liberation
Political positionLeft-wing
Regional affiliationCOPPPAL

The People's Electoral Movement (Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo, MEP) was a left-wing political party in Venezuela, founded in 1967 by Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa.

The MEP was founded after Prieto Figueroa won the 1967 Acción Democrática (AD) primary election, only to see his nomination overturned by the Romulo Betancourt faction, in favour of Gonzalo Barrios, considering Prieto too far left.[1] Prieto Figueroa, at the time President of the Venezuelan Senate as well as President of AD, split from AD over the affair along with a substantial number of his supporters.[1] Prieto Figueroa achieved 19% of the vote in the 1968 Venezuelan presidential election, coming fourth in a close election (Rafael Caldera won with 29%). However Prieto's subsequent electoral run, in the 1978 Venezuelan presidential election (the party endorsed  [es] in 1973), achieved only just over 1% of votes.

Prieto Figueroa led the party until his death in April 1993. At the December 1993 election it was part of the National Convergence coalition which successfully backed Rafael Caldera. The party supported Hugo Chávez from 1998 onwards, and in the legislative elections, 4 December 2005, the party won 11 out of 165 seats in the National Assembly. It merged into PSUV on 20 October 2007.

Presidential candidates supported[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b David L. Swanson, Paolo Mancini (1996), Politics, media, and modern democracy: an international study of innovations in electoral campaigning and their consequences, Greenwood Publishing Group. p244


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