CARACAS — Venezuela’s electoral authorities will carry out a simulation on Sunday in which they will test the voting system and voters will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the electronic ballot in which President Nicolás Maduro, who aspires to be re-elected for a third six-year term, occupies a privileged place as contemplated by the electoral law.
“Anyone who wants to can participate in the simulation,” Elvis Amoroso, president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), told reporters. The CNE, which published the ballot in May with the photos, names and symbols of the parties supporting the ten presidential candidates, announced that all 3,006 tables set up for the simulation are fully operational.
In total, more than 21.3 million Venezuelans are eligible to vote in the July 28 elections. The winner will govern during the 2025-2031 six-year term. The simulation tables represent 10% of the total of 30,026 tables arranged in the 15,797 voting centers for the next elections.
Although this is a simulation, voters, the opposition and civil organizations are still concerned about the design of the ballot paper.
“I don’t want to make a mistake on July 28,” said Carmen Acosta, a 56-year-old housewife, without mentioning her preferences. The system is simple, but “you have to be careful not to make a mistake,” she warned.
Some fear they will have difficulty finding a candidate other than Maduro on the ballot, particularly diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, the candidate of the so-called Democratic Unitary Platform, Venezuela’s main opposition coalition.
The image of the president is repeated 13 times, one next to the other in the first three lines, while those of the opposition several of them have similarities in the colors and symbols that in the past distinguished his fiercest critics.
Among the parties supporting Maduro is the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), which was intervened by the Supreme Court of Justice in August of last year. In addition to the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, the president has the support of 11 other forces, including the ten members of the coalition of leftist parties called the Great Patriotic Pole.
The Supreme Court, which critics say is controlled by the ruling party, suspended the leadership of the PCV, the country’s oldest party and which in recent years has joined Maduro’s critics. The court also appointed an intervening board of directors that is in the hands of dissidents who have been linked to the government.
The historical leaders of the Communist party, including the former general secretary of the Central Committee Óscar Figuera, announced their support for the candidacy of Enrique Márquez, of the Centrados party, a former legislator close to the main opposition bloc.
The Supreme Court has made similar decisions in recent years against the country’s four largest opposition parties — Democratic Action (AD), Justice First (PJ), Popular Will and the Christian-socialist Copei — as well as other small opposition organizations that have split after some factions ended up allied with the government. These organizations will participate in the July 28 elections, but their current leaders have broken ties with their former leaders.
González Urrutia, 74, meanwhile, emerged in April as Maduro’s main opponent after the candidacy of opposition leader María Corina Machado, winner of more than 92% of the votes in the October primaries, was blocked. Machado was disqualified from holding public office for 15 years just after announcing her intention to participate in the primaries.
González Urrutia was originally registered as a provisional candidate while waiting for Machado to reverse his disqualification, but that possibility was cut short by the Supreme Court. The nomination of his first alternative was also blocked for reasons still unknown.
Machado has continued touring the country to promote the former diplomat’s candidacy.
Several opposition dissidents also stand out on the ballot, who have emerged as bitter rivals of their former leaders. At the head of parties that were judicially intervened are Luis Eduardo Martínez (AD and Copei, four other parties) and José Brito (PJ and three more parties).
Lawyer Antonio Ecarri has the support of three parties, including Avanzada Progresista, whose elected leadership was rejected by the electoral authority.
The chances of victory for Martínez, Brito and Ecarri are remote, as are the other five remaining candidates: former legislator Márquez, evangelical pastor Javier Bertucci, former mayor of Caracas Claudio Fermín, former political prisoner Daniel Ceballos and comedian Benjamín Rausseo. With the exception of Rausseo (2%), the others add up to 1% or less in the various polls of voting intention.
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