2024-09-06 05:54:14
Only 69,211 Venezuelans abroad are eligible to vote in the Venezuelan presidential elections on July 28, 2024.
On Sunday, July 28, 2024, presidential elections will be held in Venezuela, an electoral process in which Venezuelans residing in Ecuador and the vast majority of Venezuelan migrants scattered around the world will not be able to participate.
In Ecuador, Venezuelans will not be able to exercise their right to vote due to the closure of the consulates in Quito and Guayaquil, ordered by the president of the Caribbean country, Nicolás Maduro, on April 16.
The Venezuelan President took this measure in support of his Mexican counterpart, Andrés López Obrador, after the assault on the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador by the Government of Ecuador on April 5, 2024.
Before the consulates closed, some Venezuelans in Quito and Guayaquil had changed their address in order to be able to vote at the consulates on July 28. In fact, the deadline to do this procedure or register for the first time in the Electoral Registry expired on April 16, the day the consulates were ordered to close.
But the obstacles began earlier, as the Maduro government required migrants to have an indefinite residency visa in Ecuador in order to vote from that country in the Venezuelan presidential elections. Only a minority of Venezuelans in Ecuador have this type of visa.
This and other requirements from the Venezuelan authorities were also obstacles to registering in the Electoral Registry from other countries where migrants reside.
According to data from the United Nations, nearly 8 million Venezuelans have left their country in recent years as a result of the economic, political and social crisis that the Caribbean nation has experienced, which has worsened during the Maduro government.
Of that number of migrants, only 69,211 Venezuelans abroad are eligible to vote, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela.
And it is likely that this figure includes Venezuelans who registered to vote in the Electoral Registry in the consulates of Quito and Guayaquil, but who will now not be able to do so. Therefore, the participation of Venezuelan migrants in these elections will be minimal.
Nicolás Maduro is running for a third term in office in these elections. Meanwhile, the candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), an alliance that brings together the main opposition parties, is diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.
Venezuelan migrants abroad have planned protests in different cities around the world for July 28. In Ecuador, they plan to gather from 3:00 p.m. at different points in the cities of Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Manta and Babahoyo.
By: PRIMICIAS