2024-07-29 10:19:24
(ANSA) – CARACAS, JULY 28 – Long lines of voters have formed since last night across Venezuela awaiting the opening of the polling stations from which the name of the next president will emerge today. An appointment considered crucial for the future of the South American nation, which will have to decide whether to continue with ‘Chavismo’, in power for 25 years, or make a decisive change, allowing the opposition to govern. The main rivals are the outgoing president, Nicolás Maduro – heir to the charismatic former military Hugo Chavez, president from 1999 to 2013 – and the former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia, given the lead in the polls of independent institutes and supported by the opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, who was prevented from running because she has been banned from holding public office for 15 years. As established by the National Electoral Council (Cne), the 15,767 polling stations authorized to vote will be open “continuously” until 6:00 p.m. (midnight Italian time) to accommodate the more than 21 million registered voters. Meanwhile, abroad, 69,211 Venezuelans will also be able to vote, out of a total of 104 diplomatic and consular representations of the Caribbean country in the world. (ANSA).
2024-07-29 10:19:24