Venezuela: Edmundo González calls for ‘citizen observation’ to ‘protect the victory’ in the presidential elections

“We all have a fundamental task here and I want you to listen to me well, each of you must be a witness at each polling station of the will for change in this country, we are going to achieve great citizen observation to protect the victory, because on December 28 July we are going to win,” said the former ambassador in front of hundreds of supporters in the state of Miranda, near Caracas.

González Urrutia, candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), pointed out that The citizen movement that is being seen in the streets of Venezuela is “for freedom and dignity”.

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“We are going to win a country where the president does not insult and the most capable people in their areas govern, we are going to win a country of respect, in which everyone is taken into account and no one imposes himself,” he added.

Meanwhile, opposition leader María Corina Machado indicated that On voting day, citizens will be at all polling stations “monitoring and defending each vote.”

“Look how they don’t want to have international observation here, they are afraid of observation, so get ready because until the last voting station we Venezuelan citizens will be monitoring and defending each vote,” said Machado, winner of the presidential primaries. October, but disqualified from holding elected office until 2036.

(You can read: Venezuela: María Corina Machado ‘has a plan to escape through Colombia’, says Diosdado Cabello, number two of Chavismo)

Machado insisted on the citizen organization through the so-called “comanditos” to join forces for the presidential elections.

González Urrutia’s campaign command demanded on Wednesday that the National Electoral Council (CNE) reverse the decision to cancel the invitation to the European Union (EU) to send an observation mission for the elections, something that had been agreed between the Government and the PUD last October.

Despite this decision, anti-Chavismo has confirmed that it will remain in the presidential race.
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(Keep reading: Why can Gustavo Petro’s silence sink the proposal he made to Nicolás Maduro about a plebiscite in Venezuela?)

The pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Tuesday its decision to exclude European observation after the bloc ratified individual sanctions against some 50 Chavista officials, but temporarily suspended that of the president of that organization, Elvis Amoroso.

Amoroso described the measure as “blackmail” and called the bloc a “new interventionist actor,” a label that Chavismo constantly attributes to Washington.

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“Whatever they do, we are going to win,” María Cabrera Monasterio, a 62-year-old retired teacher, told AFP. “Against all odds we are going to defend Venezuela,” said Ramos Domingo Maza, 69 years old and unemployed.

Chavismo also did a demonstration in Guatire: it is common practice to march in the same places selected by the opposition.

Maduro, who aspires to a third term that will extend him to 18 years in power, led another demonstration in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo state (central-north).

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“We are building the most powerful machinery that has ever existed in the Bolivarian Revolution,” he told hundreds of followers. “We need a perfect victory on July 28 (…), that the victory be overwhelming, overwhelming, gigantic, and second, that it be a peaceful victory.”

“We leave the worst times behind, here what is coming is growth, development, prosperity and recovery.”