Venezuela’s opposition votes this Sunday to elect a single candidate to face President Nicolás Maduro in 2024in a primary process plagued by logistical challenges.
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At 8 am local (7 am Colombia time) some of the 3,000 voting centers began to open, although many were delayed waiting for polling station members or the electoral party itself.
(You can read: ‘I am going to defeat Maduro, have no doubts’: María Corina Machado)
There are 10 candidates participating in the internal opposition elections, of the 13 initially registered, after former governor Henrique Capriles and former deputies Freddy Superlano and Roberto Enríquez will withdraw their candidacy a few days before the elections.
The candidates are the opponents María Corina Machado, Carlos Prosperi, Andréés Caleca, Tamara Adrián, Delsa Solórzano, Andrés Velásquez, César Pérez Vivas, César Almeida, Gloria Pinho and Luis Farías.
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For these elections, the closed voter census amounts to just over 20 million people, inside and outside Venezuela, where Voting centers have been set up in 28 countries, including Colombia, but the vote was canceled in Argentina, because it coincided with the presidential elections in the southern country, and in Israel, due to the war conflict with Hamas.
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Follow the minute by minute of the day here.
Machado arrives to vote
Accompanied by two of her children, the candidate for the opposition primary elections María Corina Machado, a favorite in the polls and who is emerging as the winner of the day, went to cast her vote at the Martínez Centeno School, in Santa Eduvigis, state Miranda.
Guaidó: the primaries are a success
The Venezuelan opposition leader in exile Juan Guaidó told EFE that the presidential opposition primaries this Sunday are, despite the discouragement of his compatriots, a success and a “window” to relieve President Nicolás Maduro, pointing out that the “Chavista” also lacks “popular support”.
“Let’s somehow crown a long-standing effort,” Guaidó said about the elections, highlighting that they were “self-managed” by the opposition and very “vulnerable.”
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