2023-06-16 19:20:34
CARACAS (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leaders announced Friday their firm decision to carry out, without the assistance of the National Electoral Council, the primary elections to designate a unitary presidential candidate for the 2024 general elections.
The commitment to hold the primaries “remains intact,” said Jesús María Casal, president of the National Commission for Primaries at a press conference. The primaries, scheduled for October 22, will be open to all Venezuelans registered on the electoral roll. “We will advance with a self-managed primary,” he said.
The announcement came a day after the National Assembly of Venezuela, controlled by supporters of President Nicolás Maduro, decided to review the permanence of the Council’s leadership and convene a committee to elect the next members of that collegiate body.
The president of the Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, indicated that “the appointment of the new Board of Directors is essential,” without explaining the reason why it was decided to include the rectors who had not resigned in the process of review and appointment. The decision leaves open the possibility of removing the two executives linked to the opposition, Enrique Márquez and Roberto Picón, from their posts.
After accepting the resignations, Rodríguez announced that all of the five principal rectors of the Council and their 10 substitutes will be elected, without giving other details. The Council is in charge of organizing national, state and municipal elections in the South American country.
It is expected that for several weeks or months the electoral body will be prevented from making decisions, including approving or not the provision of technical and logistical assistance to the primaries, Casal said.
He said that at the moment one of the priorities of the primary commission is to identify places destined to serve as voting centers, since the use of the Council’s infrastructure has been cut short. The number of voting centers would be much smaller.
Self-management of the process, on the other hand, could help minimize friction between President Maduro’s adversaries, according to experts. As an example of the divisions between the opposition leaders, there was the issue of participation or not in the primaries of the electoral body, which in the last two decades has been seen as favorable to the government.
The president of the Council, Pedro Calzadilla, announced on Thursday that together with the remaining pro-government members of the electoral body’s board they had placed their “positions at the order” of the Assembly.
The selection of the new members will take place two years after, among a series of measures adopted by the Maduro government to improve relations with the United States and the European Union, it made the concession to include in that body, for the first time since 2005, to two recognized opponents.
Although most of the council members elected in May 2021 to serve for seven years were officials close to the Maduro government, Márquez and Picón inspired confidence in some opponents. They both remain silent.
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