[asimuvPR]

Thats a frequent opinion that sounds sensible. But when you put some thought into it, you realize that a lot of the electorate are poor uneducated people who did not know better.

[seiferteric]

Maybe so, it's often said that democracy requires an educated populace. So maybe if you don't have that, you don't have a democracy.

[ams6110]

Also an unbiased and free news media, which is another thing that might need to be on your list.

[jknoepfler]

If by unbiased you mean in terms of the bias variance trade-off, and not in terms of "tends to align with beliefs of neither side of the political spectrum," then I'm inclined to agree.

[nikcub]

and in the regions most people vote for whichever party drove them to the polling booth in a bus then gave them a sack of food and a gas canister afterwards.

Venezuelan elections have never been fair - there is a lot of vote rigging from all sides