Venezuela: Opposition Parties Jointly Announce Non-Participation in Upcoming Elections

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Venezuelan opposition officially announced, in a statement on Sunday, August 2nd, its decision not to participate in the legislative elections called by the government of Nicolás Maduro for December this year, considering them a “fraudulent process”.

The forces critical of “Chavismo” expressed their support for “a national pact for the rescue of Venezuela”. The decision, which has been publicly supported on several occasions by Juan Guaidó, the country’s self-proclaimed interim president, was signed by 27 organizations headed by the opposition parties: Acción Democrática, Primera Justicia, Vontade Popular, and Un Nuevo Tiempo.

Other parties joining include Causa Radical, Encuentro Ciudadano, Izquierda Democrática, Proyecto Venezuela, and Cuentas Claras, which support Guaidó, head of the National Assembly and recognized as interim president by nearly 60 countries. The radical opposition forces, organized on the ‘Soy Venezuela’ platform, although they share this view, have not signed the document.

“After exhausting all national and international efforts to achieve a fair electoral process, we took the unanimous decision not to take part in the fraud of the Maduro regime,” the manifesto said.

The declaration bases its position on a list of every obstacle imposed by Maduro on the National Assembly, and demands the revocation of the party candidates’ disqualification, the full involvement of all parties, a fair campaign, equal access to public funds, a reasonable electoral schedule and a professional and equidistant behavior of the members of the Armed Forces.

These elections were convened by the National Electoral Council (CNE) unilaterally appointed by the Supreme Court and controlled by the current populist regime. This body also disbanded the leaderships of the Acción Democrática, Primera Justicia, and Vontade Popular parties and handed its control over to leaders more closely related to the government.

The opposition parties reiterate their electoral and democratic orientation and claim their interest in taking part in clean and decent elections. They also appealed to the international community to “reject this new fraud attempt.”

The statement represents the result of a lengthy debate surrounding the election between the leaders of these parties, in which they sought to exhaust all possibilities of participation. Some important leaders of the opposition, like Henrique Capriles Radonski, have been challenging the lack of results of Guaidó’s strategy for some time now, proposing a change of course and allowing the prospect of debating the electoral participation of the opposition in the government-sponsored voting.

To date, only the members of the so-called Mesa de Diálogo Nacional (National Dialogue Table) party have been willing to participate in the election. It is a bloc of minority parties that has negotiated with Maduro the date of the election and the procedures for appointing a new CNE, to the detriment of the National Assembly’s constitutional authority.

Source: El País