The Venezuelan opponent Andres Velasquez rejected this Sunday the technical support of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela in the internal primaries of the opposition, in which they will choose the candidate who will face Chavismo in the presidential elections scheduled for 2024.
“We reject from now on that in the primary election of the presidential candidate of the democratic factors, which is an internal process, the CNE intervenes in any way as the electoral arm of the regime”Velásquez said, quoted in a press release from his team.
The leader of The Cause Rwho recently presented his candidacy for these opposition elections, assured that the intervention of the CNE in the internal process “is not justified”, and ruled that “no Venezuelan will want to participate in that process if it is carried out” by the Electoral Power.
Last Friday, the CNE reported that it agreed to form a technical commission together with the Unitary Platform to determine the scope of its eventual assistance in the opposition primary elections.
This commission was a proposal made by opponents last December to evaluate the use of the country’s voting centers for primary elections -more than 14,000-, as well as the organization of special days to register new voters and update data from the Electoral Registry.
In this regard, Velásquez considered that the CNE will accept the request, but conditional on the fact that the technical support of the institution and the intervention of the Plan República (military deployed for the electoral processes) are also admitted, a proposal that he described as “unacceptable”.
Since last May, when the opposition reported that it would elect a unitary presidential candidate through primaries, the procedures that will govern it have been brought forward, but a schedule for the process has not yet been presented.
For their part, nearly 500 young opponents of the Maduro dictatorship took to the streets of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, this Sunday, to demand from the electoral authorities the permanent opening of the Electoral Registry.
The demonstrators, who gathered in the east of the capital to celebrate Youth Day, tried to reach one of the headquarters of the National Electoral Council, located in Plaza Venezuela, which they did not achieve, as they were detained by a contingent of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) in the vicinity of the area.
However, the leaders of political parties and student organizations that led the mobilization were attended by an official from the Electoral Power who approached them and listened to their claims.
“Young people from political parties and NGOs are mobilized demanding that the National Electoral Council give answers for the registration of the Electoral Registry, since voting is essential and necessary for the political and economic change that we need,” the president of the Federation of University Centers (FCU) of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), Jesus Mendoza.
The youth leader of Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) jean carlos capozzi He insisted that more than three million young people “have their right to participate in the next elections restricted” by not permanently activating Electoral Registration points throughout the country.
“We are in the streets demanding the same thing that we have always demanded, our right to be able to participate, our right to be able to vote, our right to be able to participate in the next elections,” Capozzi told EFE.
In the city of Maracaibo, in the Zulia state (west), a hundred anti-Chavistas that make up regional university movements also mobilized with the same demands.
The opponents called for a new protest for this Monday, in which they intend to reach the main headquarters of the Electoral Power, located in the center of Caracas, in order to request the opening of 1,500 registration centers for new voters before the presidential elections. scheduled for 2024.
This Sunday, members of the Chavista youth also mobilize from a popular square in Caracas to the center of the capital, to commemorate Youth Day and the 209th anniversary of the Battle of Victory.
(With information from EFE)
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