Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that it was
"impossible"
to delay the legislative elections, scheduled for December 6, in reaction to recommendations from representatives of the European Union on the controversial ballot.
"The European Union has suggested the possibility of postponing the date of the elections in Venezuela but this is impossible because it is a constitutional mandate, the Constitution provides that on January 5, 2021 the new National Assembly enters into session"
, Nicolas Maduro said during a videoconference in the presence of candidates close to the government.
The ballot for the renewal of Parliament, the only power currently in the hands of the opposition, was boycotted by around thirty political parties, bringing together the majority of the opposition, who qualify it as
“fraud”
.
Despite everything, the opponent Henrique Capriles, two-time Venezuelan presidential candidate, called for participation.
Read also: Venezuela: the common front around Juan Guaido is cracking
On Thursday, the International Contact Group, which brings together European and Latin American countries in order to end the Venezuelan crisis, declared in a joint statement that
“the current electoral calendar does not allow the deployment of an observation mission "
.
On September 2, Caracas invited the UN and the EU to participate as observers in the legislative elections.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, also pleaded, on August 11, for a postponement of the legislative elections, considering that the conditions for organizing them and for sending an observation mission were not met.
"Impossible, ask what you want, but we cannot achieve the impossible, we cannot violate the Constitution, it is a command, it seems clear to me"
, insisted Nicolas Maduro during a televised address.
The opposition accuses President Maduro of using
"the control exercised over all public powers"
to do away
with "the possibility of having some type of free and competitive election"
.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself interim president in January 2019, repeated Thursday on Twitter that
"the conditions for free elections do not exist in Venezuela"
.