The Venezuelan National Assembly on Thursday (August 24) appointed a new National Electoral Council which will be in charge of organizing next year’s presidential election, which promises to be under tension. Of the five members of the steering committee, three are considered ” chavistas or politically situated on the side of the government, including its president. An imbalance denounced by the opposition, which accuses the body responsible for organizing the elections of being ” a system instrument “.
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With our correspondent in Caracas, Alice Campaignolle
The Venezuelan National Electoral Council is reorganizing, once again, after the collective resignation last June.
With five new main members appointed by the National Assembly – three positioned on the government side, two on the opposition side – the new CNE is not unanimous: the new president of the institution, Elvis Amoroso, is the same man who declared two of the main opposition candidates ineligible.
For Maria Corina Machado, the favorite in the race against Nicolas Maduro, “ this is a good thing “: ” They drop the masks, it’s a good thing, to know who we are facing: an instrument of the system. »
The role of the CNE is obviously to organize the next presidential election which should take place in 2024. The opposition will organize its primaries in october of this year, without the help of the electoral entity, because of the doubts hanging over its independence.
Frisson in the rows of opponents to the government Friday, August 25: Diosdado Cabello, vice-president of the PSUV in power, publicly affirmed that from now on the CNE could organize elections at any time. Thinly veiled threats on the possibility of bringing forward the date of the ballot and thus taking the opposition of course, without even having designated its candidate.