Numquam est fidelis cum potente societas

testatur haec fabela propositum meum...indeed: the caudillo is not present in Venezuela, some people are tired of voting, others are disappointed the caudillo lied to them about his health, others feel very shortly after having voted for him that perhaps the idea was not so good, others, from the opposition, think their leaders sold themselves out...and some others just want to vote later on during the day.

It is still too early to tell if abstention is really going to be that high. As Miguel, who is in Caracas, says, we would be in uncharted waters.

We don't know if officialdom will try to push their people to vote at the last moment by threatening them...they can, sort of, as they know in real time who has voted and who hasn't. We don't know if the binary files that run the "best voting system on Earth" (Carter dixit) will behave differently in the voting centres where we do not have witnesses..and here lies the rub as there are lots of places where witnesses haven't shown up.

Ps. In Barinas a witness was thrown out of the voting centre because he denounced Chávez supporters were "helping" people to vote. This has been a frequent thing in Chávez's feud.