General elections were held in Venezuela on 1 December 1968.[1] The presidential election was won by Rafael Caldera of Copei, who received 29.1% of the vote.[2]Acción Democrática (Democratic Action, AD) remained the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate. Voter turnout was 96.7% in the presidential election and 94.5% in the Congressional elections.[3] When Caldera took office in March 1969, it marked the first time in Venezuela's history as an independent nation that the sitting government peacefully transferred power to an elected member of the opposition.
Background
The election was shaped by the split in AD. Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa, then President of the Venezuelan Senate and President of AD, won the AD primary election (held in 1967). His nomination was overturned in favor of Gonzalo Barrios by the Rómulo Betancourt faction of AD, which considered Prieto Figueroa too left-wing.[4] Prieto Figueroa and a substantial number of his supporters then split from AD and formed a new party: the Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo ("People's Electoral Movement" - MEP).[4] Ultimately, Prieto finished fourth, but his 719,000 votes far exceeded the 32,900-vote gap between Caldera and Barrios.
^ abSwanson, D. L.; Mancini, P. (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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