Venezuela postpones Presidential Elections until May 20th
The state and municipal Legislative Councils will be also elected on that day
By Mariela Pérez Valenzuela
Venezuela’s presidential elections, set for April 22th, were postponed for next the month, together with the state and municipal legislative powers, according to an agreement signed between the government and the country’s opposition.
On May 20th, millions of Venezuelans will go to the polls to elect the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which may lead to the re-election of Nicolás Maduro, or the election of another of the candidates accredited to the National Electoral Council (CNE).
In a crucial moment of national political life last Thursday, Maduro’s socialist government and representatives of the opposition parties signed an agreement that ratifies the commitment to comply with “the most comprehensive and full electoral guarantees” in the presidential elections.
The parties “celebrate the signing of the agreement that ratifies the dialogue held in the Dominican Republic and that allows us to choose our leaders and representatives with the broadest electoral guarantees,” said the president of CNE Tibisay Lucena.
Delcy Rodríguez, the president of the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), also spoke about the agreement, saying that in this way the right-wing will not be able to boycott the electoral process.
Rodriguez pointed out that in the face of continuous attacks against the South American country, it has been demonstrated that Venezuela wants to move forward by means of the vote. “The people of Venezuela have a president who guarantees peace, tranquility, sovereignty and independence,” she added.
The president of the ANC delivered the constituent decree that calls for the May elections to Lucena, in what analysts believe will decide the future of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Sending a communication to UN Secretary General António Guterres to be witness together with international organizations of the development of the elections is one of the agreements signed.
Opposition candidates Henri Falcón, the former two-term governor of Lara, and evangelical pastor Javier Bertucci, signatories to the agreement, supported the democratic ways to resolve political differences in Venezuela, after signing the electoral guarantee agreement.
Falcon, who broke away from an opposition alliance called Democratic Unity Roundtable, confirmed that elections are the only way to have access to the government.
The former governor who separated after the Bolivarian Revolution, represents the Progressive Advanced parties, the Movement towards Socialism and the Political Electoral Independent Organization Committee (Copei). He called for participation with the vote, contrary to what was proclaimed by the so-called Democratic Unity Roundtable.
Bertucci, nominated by the group of Hope for Change (Esperanza por el Cambio) voters, said that the transformations in Venezuela passing through the democratic way and the vote, and never by means of violence as the most radical wing of the opposition have done all this time, something which has left hundreds of dead and injured.
Maduro is supported by 10 parties and organizations asociated with the social inclusion process promoted by the Bolivarian Revolution, and he is considered to be the winner of the elections by allied political media.
According to the agreement signed, the government and the opposition accepted the reopening of the Electoral Registry, both in Venezuela and abroad, and the reinstallation of the electoral centers affected by the violent groups linked to the extreme right-wing parties.
The parties agreed on the relevance of a reconciliation policy as the basis for the national democratic coexistence, and on the rejection of violence used to force a seizure of power.
This is the 24th election since the late President Hugo Chávez was elected in 1998; and based on international observers’ opinions that have attended these democratic actions, Venezuela has the safest and most transparent system in the world, according to former president of United States James Carter, after participating as an observer in one of those democratic actions.
Meanwhile, the Somos Venezuela or We are Venezuela movement, whose General Secretary is also the ACN president Rodriguez, is deployed in the 23 states by a session called “house-to-house” intended to listen to the people and “to achieve together the model of social inclusion and equality”.
Translated by ESTI