Venezuelan presidential candidate María Corina Machado greets one of her supporters in Maracay. MIGUEL GUTIERREZ (EFE)
The National Electoral Council’s unexpected move to offer its technical support to the opposition primaries came late. After meetings between the parties, the National Primary Commission indicated this Monday that after almost four months in which the election judge’s response remained in limbo due to the resignation of the rectors, the organizers moved forward and are not ready to change that Date to integrate it into logistics now. “The current situation of the elementary school is very different from the one we had on June 5 (the last time they communicated before the resignation of the principals),” said a statement sent to the authorities this Monday. “After almost four months have passed since June 5, 2023, the date of this application, the primary election we are conducting is now in its final phase and the schedule is about to culminate with the holding of the election on October 22 2023. ″.
The opposition is moving forward in its primaries to choose the candidate who will face Nicolás Maduro in next year’s presidential election. To this end, it has managed to activate 3,008 voting centers in squares, parks and headquarters of neighborhood organizations, spread across 331 of the 335 municipalities in the country. The CNE proposed last week to automate the process, which should have been postponed until mid-November. Despite rejecting the core of the proposal, the Organizing Commission proposes that the Electoral Body support it in complementary activities such as coordinating the government to enable about 400 schools as additional centers, activating security to avoid obstacles in the transfer of materials, and to manage the accreditations of foreign press and election experts who want to come and report on the process. The agency has not responded to these new requests.
Chavismo had used the lure of technical assistance to create another dilemma for the opposition coalition. With María Corina Machado, the liberal leader who has most directly confronted Nicolás Maduro’s government, leading the polls, it is expected that Chavismo’s survival after the election would be difficult. But of course the candidate, like two others on the shortlist, is disqualified. The sanction was imposed a few months ago to prevent their participation. However, the National Pre-Election Commission decided to allow all candidates, regardless of whether they were disqualified or not, to participate, so that this obstacle could be eliminated in Mexico’s political negotiations within the framework of the election campaign, with the commitments demanded by the government to return to the democratic path .
The President of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela, Elvis Amoroso (i), shakes hands with the President of the National Pre-Election Commission, Jesús María Casal (c), after giving a press conference in Caracas, September 25 (Venezuela). MIGUEL GUTIERREZ (EFE)
Talks between the opposition and Chavismo, brokered by the international community, have been stalled for months. In addition to overriding the veto of opposition candidates, Venezuela should set a date for the 2024 presidential election, just three months away, to establish an arrival target based on which everything that is politically negotiable can be negotiated in the middle. The Maduro government has been adamant in its demand to lift all sanctions against officials and state-owned companies that have complicated its finances. Washington, in turn, although it has eased its pressure, continues to create preconditions for the elections in order to ease the deadlock.
Chavismo can, as before, use the Supreme Court to intervene in the opposition process and control it at will. Diosdado Cabello, first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, stressed in recent weeks that the process could not be carried out if the opposition did not accept the CNE’s technical support. This Monday, in his traditional press conference, he said that this consultation would be monitored by the United States. “The music is played by whoever pays for it, and in this case the music is played by those who receive the money from the United States.” “It’s not them who decides in the primaries, it’s the gringos who decide,” Cabello said and added that “nothing will happen” on October 22nd.
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