By Arthur Shaw

Article 229 of the Venezuelan Constitution says “A person holding the office of Executive Vice-President, Minister or Governor, or Mayor as of the date he announces his candidacy or at any time between such date and that of the Presidential election shall not be eligible for election to the office of President of the Republic.”

So, the Constitution disqualifies the holders of four offices — e.g., VP, minister, governor, and mayor — as presidential candidates.

The two major candidates are Nicolas Maduro, the socialist candidate, and Henrique Capriles, the capitalist candidate. There will be six other candidates on the ballot. But the other six candidates don’t have a ghost of a chance of winning on April 14.

Maduro, the proletarian candidate, holds the office of acting president since March 8th this year. He was sworn in as acting president three days after the death of President Hugo Chavez. Earlier Maduro served as executive vice president, one of the four offices that Art. 229 prohibits. Clearly, as a sitting VP, Maduro would have been disqualified under Art. 229 to run for president unless he stepped down before he announced.

Capriles, the bourgeois candidate, holds the office of governor of the state of Miranda. During the race between Capriles and Hugo Chavez for the office of president in 2012, Capriles, who was then governor of Miranda, temporarily stepped down and reassumed the office of governor of Miranda after his defeat by Hugo Chavez on Oct. 7, 2012.

Now, Capriles is hinting and acting as if he will refuse to step down as governor of the state of Miranda before the period beginning with the announcement of his candidacy for president and the April 14 presidential election. April 1 and 2 have been set for the dates of announcement for Capriles and Maduro respectively. So, Capriles may announce his candidacy as a deliberately unqualified candidate, provoking a constitutional crisis designed to de-legitimise succession.

A number of outlets of the bourgeois media in Venezuela and abroad argue that Maduro is disqualified because he is still the VP, a prohibited office under Art. 229. and because he will remain VP until another president is elected on April 14. This is of course the kind of crackpot argument that excites and attracts the bourgeois media.

Most of the opinion polls show Capriles presently about 13 points behind Maduro. The opinion polls have credibility because they correctly picked who would win the Oct. 7 presidential race between Capriles and Chavez and these polls correctly guessed the margin by which Capriles would lose to Chavez. In addition, these polls largely foresaw the outcome of the Dec. 2012 regional elections of 23 governor seats.

So, Capriles may figure he has nothing to lose by contriving his own disqualification as a candidate.

Neither the world bourgeoisie nor the mass of the bourgeois media abroad supported the 2005 lunatic idea of the Venezuelan capitalists demanding the boycotting of the 2005 legislative elections in order to de-legitimise Venezuelan democracy. Almost everybody, including the international bourgeoisie and its media, thought in 2005 that the boycotting Venezuelan capitalists were a bunch of fools after they adopted lunatic tactics.

Some observers believe Capriles is only playing around with self-disqualification in order to appease the kooks in the bourgeois-led coalition which supports Capriles. If this is the case, the kooks may be very upset if Capriles steps down as governor before he announces for president on April 1.