Thursday, September 13, 2007
As if anyone in Venezuela cares what this blog thinks anyways...
As is known, I'm not exactly enthralled with the proposed reforms to the constitution and I personally would like to see them voted down. Then again, my vote doesn't count.
So what do the people think whose votes do count? Well the Sejias (Datos) polling firm gave us some information on that in Wednesdays's Ultimas Noticias. Here it goes:
First they asked how much people know about the reforms. 11% claimed to be well informed, 48.6% said they were somewhat informed, and 38% said they didn't know anything about the reforms.
In terms of the reforms themselves 43.3% support them and 34.9% oppose them.
Along the same lines 45.7% said they thought the reforms would benefit the country while 30.4% said they would be harmfull.
And here are the key "how would you vote" numbers: 40.6% would vote in favor of the reforms, 22.5% would vote against them, and 24% wouldn't vote. With the SI beating the NO by about a two to one margin it sure looks like the reforms are a done deal.
Regarding their opinions on individual articles we have this:
62.8% are in favor of the reform that extends the term from 6 to 7 years.
65.4% are in favor of the creation of "popular power".
47.2% are in favor of including the term "socialism" in the constitution (40.5% oppose that).
90.8% favor giving social rights to taxi drivers (no wonder a certain commentor is so in favor of these reforms).
70% are in favor of the reduction of work hours.
47% are in favor of removing presidential term limits but 49.3% still oppose it making that one of the few reforms that would actually fail on its own. I guess we know why the reforms are all grouped together.
I think it is kind of funny that most Venezuelans are opposed to getting rid of term limits even though this blogger actually supports elminating them. Yet what this blogger can't stand - extending terms from 6 to 7 years in length - most Venezuelans support. I guess this blogger is pretty out of touch!
BTW, on some general questions we get the usual responses:
73.4% of the electorate approves of the way Chavez is doing his job.
47.1% say their own personal situation has improved during the 8 years Chavez has been in office versus only 19.9% who say it has gotten worse and 32.2% who say it has remained the same.
Bush would probably be happy with those numbers.
So to summarize: Today we learned that Chavez is still extremely popular, that barring some tidal shift the proposed constitutional reforms will easily pass, and that the thinking of the Oil Wars blog should never be confused with how Venezuelans themselves think.
I don't know about you but for me that last point is a real downer.
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So what do the people think whose votes do count? Well the Sejias (Datos) polling firm gave us some information on that in Wednesdays's Ultimas Noticias. Here it goes:
First they asked how much people know about the reforms. 11% claimed to be well informed, 48.6% said they were somewhat informed, and 38% said they didn't know anything about the reforms.
In terms of the reforms themselves 43.3% support them and 34.9% oppose them.
Along the same lines 45.7% said they thought the reforms would benefit the country while 30.4% said they would be harmfull.
And here are the key "how would you vote" numbers: 40.6% would vote in favor of the reforms, 22.5% would vote against them, and 24% wouldn't vote. With the SI beating the NO by about a two to one margin it sure looks like the reforms are a done deal.
Regarding their opinions on individual articles we have this:
62.8% are in favor of the reform that extends the term from 6 to 7 years.
65.4% are in favor of the creation of "popular power".
47.2% are in favor of including the term "socialism" in the constitution (40.5% oppose that).
90.8% favor giving social rights to taxi drivers (no wonder a certain commentor is so in favor of these reforms).
70% are in favor of the reduction of work hours.
47% are in favor of removing presidential term limits but 49.3% still oppose it making that one of the few reforms that would actually fail on its own. I guess we know why the reforms are all grouped together.
I think it is kind of funny that most Venezuelans are opposed to getting rid of term limits even though this blogger actually supports elminating them. Yet what this blogger can't stand - extending terms from 6 to 7 years in length - most Venezuelans support. I guess this blogger is pretty out of touch!
BTW, on some general questions we get the usual responses:
73.4% of the electorate approves of the way Chavez is doing his job.
47.1% say their own personal situation has improved during the 8 years Chavez has been in office versus only 19.9% who say it has gotten worse and 32.2% who say it has remained the same.
Bush would probably be happy with those numbers.
So to summarize: Today we learned that Chavez is still extremely popular, that barring some tidal shift the proposed constitutional reforms will easily pass, and that the thinking of the Oil Wars blog should never be confused with how Venezuelans themselves think.
I don't know about you but for me that last point is a real downer.
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