[13] For the 2010 election, the Ley Orgánica de Procesos Electorales (LOPE) (Basic law of electoral process) among other changes reduced the party list proportion to 30%.
[citation needed] Under the new law, in 2009, electoral districts were redefined in a way that has been accused of favouring the PSUV, particularly in giving more weight to votes in the countryside over those in the city.
"[8][9][17][18] The European Union noted that "the Venezuelan National Electoral Council accredited more than 200 international guests to accompany the day of the election.
[23] At this congress, beginning on 21 November 2009 and ending in March 2010,[24] members were to debate each weekend over the new standards of the party, in which are included voting and selection method for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
By April 2010, the MUD included around 50 political parties, of which 16 were national in scope and the rest regional, and received support from some other social organisations and opinion groups.
[22] In addition, a number of the nine police officials imprisoned for participating in the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, regarded by the MUD as political prisoners, were also nominated, in districts with a real chance of opposition success;[22] winning would require their release due to parliamentary immunity.
[29] El Nacional editor and proprietor Miguel Henrique Otero, leader of the opposition movement Movimiento 2D, said that "The editorial reasoning behind the photo was to create a shock so that people could in some way react to a situation that the government has done absolutely nothing about.
"[30] The incident brought further international attention to the issue of Venezuela's crime rates (having already received widespread attention as a leading issue of public concern), and was followed by an article in The New York Times, reporting Venezuela's murder rate was higher than that of Iraq,[31] although the comparison used Iraq Body Count's numbers derived from media reports rather than the World Health Organization's survey-based estimates, which are three times higher.
At the end of August the death of Franklin Brito due to a hunger strike led to widespread domestic and international media coverage.
The government accused the Venezuelan opposition of acting like "vultures" and desiring Brito's death for their own political ends in the context of the coming election.
GIS XXI's predictions for the February 2009 constitutional referendum just before polling day tallied closely with those of the independent Instituto Venezolano de Análisis de Datos (IVAD), and both closely matched the outcome (a nearly 10 percent margin of victory for approval); opposition-linked companies were predicting heavy defeat as late as December 2008.
[citation needed] In August 2010, the newspaper Últimas Noticias published what it said was the result of an unpublished opinion poll by Datanálisis, which showed the PSUV was likely to win 124 of the National Assembly's 165 seats, which would give it a two-thirds majority.
The PSUV also did not attain a three-fifths majority, which means it would not be able to pass enabling legislation without the aid of 3 non-PSUV members of the National Assembly.
"[37] The price on Venezuelan bonds increased on news of the election results, described by Bloomberg as "Chavez's worst setback at the ballot box since taking office in 1999".