María Corina Machado, the opposition's favorite candidate, maintains that
she will register in the presidential elections on July 28
despite the veto that the government of Nicolás Maduro has imposed on her.
And her nomination will be between March 21 and 25 in a massive national and international event.
The Maduro government announced the calendar of the early presidential elections for July 28, thereby
restricting the deadlines to allow the registration of new voters
and candidates as established by Venezuelan laws, and thus preventing clean and competitive elections.
Elvis Amoroso, president of the official National Electoral Council (CNE), reported the details of the electoral schedule for the presidential elections.
Voter registration and updating, both national and international, will open on March 18 until April 16.
The application and registration of candidates will be between March 21 and 25 (only 5 days) and the respective campaign will start on July 4 and conclude on July 25.
The reactions to the electoral proposal of the Chavista regime have been diverse.
Maduro said in his X account: "The CNE has spoken and we say amen, we are going to presidential elections.
I am sure that the people will win a new victory."
While María Corina Machado, who has been disqualified by the regime from holding public office for 15 years, while touring the Andean region, asked for “serenity and firmness” at her rally in Mérida when the regime launched the date of the elections
.
“There are going to be clean and free elections here
. ”
"Free elections depend on us and our reaction will be stronger," he added.
María Corina assured that the Maduro government is afraid of the elections because they know that they will be "swept away."
“Everything that happens in Venezuela in the coming decades will depend on what we do in the following days.”
She recalled that the future of Venezuela is in our hands.
“God has not been able to choose better men and women than these who are here.”
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, during his weekly program "Maduro+".
Photo EFE
Previously, the opposition candidate declared to the local press: “
I am going to register and I am going to face a competitive presidential election
.”
The other option that Maduro has is to send everything to hell, Barbados is over and he will assume the consequences that this implies,” despite the arbitrary disqualification that Maduro issued against her.
Enthusiastically, the former interim president, Juan Guaidó, from his exile in Miami said on his X account that “There is already a date.
On March 21, all of Venezuela accompanies our unitary candidate to register with the CNE.”
According to Guaidó, the registration of María Corina
represents a national and international mobilization
, in the penultimate week of March in all the 23 regional headquarters of the CNE and in the main cities of the world, such as Madrid, concentrations of opposition commandos and commanders will be organized to accompany the nomination of the unitary opposition candidate.
Violation of the Constitution and Barbados
Analysts point out that the announced electoral schedule
violates the deadlines and regulations of a minimum of six months
established by the national Constitution to organize moderately reliable elections.
By custom, elections are called the first week of December.
And the call deadlines do not allow time to allow the
more than 3 million new voters to register
and update their new residence to the 8 million Venezuelan migrants in the diaspora.
The Barbados agreements, signed by the Maduro government and the opposition represented by the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) last October, have also been violated.
Opposition negotiator Gerardo Blyde has reported 8 violations of the pact to the mediator of the kingdom of Norway.
“This escalation, far from being reversed, has continued to increase,” reproached Blyde of the opposition bloc that since 2021 has been holding talks with representatives of the Maduro government, alluding to the accusation of conspiracy against human rights activist Rocío San Miguel, who was detained last year. February 9, and the three members of María Corina's command.
Blyde details: “The Barbados Agreement determined that a path had to be established that would quickly enable presidential candidates.
The precedent with precautionary protection is in the Manuel Rosales case granted with the admission of the appeal."
His Chavista counterpart, Jorge Rodríguez, stated that the new electoral calendar allegedly
“complies with the Barbados agreements.”
The reaction of politicians
Before the election date, Juan Pablo Guanipa, member of Primero Justicia and the PUD coalition, points out that Maduro “knows that he is not alive.
He knows that in a halfway decent election Maria Corina Machado will give him an astronomical beating.
That is why he disqualifies her and that is why he announces the elections for July 28.”
In his opinion, “Chavismo violates the spirit of the Barbados agreement.
In five months we cannot completely purge the Electoral Registry (RE), register the three million people of voting age who are not in the RE, ensure the vote of Venezuelans abroad or form an international observation mission.
Chavismo knows that we Venezuelans want them out of power.
They know that we want to make up for the lost years to which they condemned us.
That's why they disqualify, that's why they put anyone who opposes them in prison
, that's why they set this date.
But it doesn't matter how many traps they want to set for us.
Maduro, we are going to get you out of Miraflores with votes this year,” he said.
Alfredo Ramos, leader of Causa R, said in
The fight is fighting and that day will be remembered as the day of the burial of “socialism of the 21st century” with the defeat of Maduro.”
While former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles raised the possibility of replacing María Corina with another opposition candidate, recalling the case of Barinas in the regional elections.
But the advanced calendar does not allow time to prepare another candidacy.
P.B.