The Venezuelan opposition gathered in the Unitary Platform, a political group composed of several parties opposed to the regime of Nicolás Maduro, opened this Monday (5) the process of presenting candidates for the primary elections in Venezuela, which are scheduled for October 22. The political group’s primaries will define the name of the presidential candidate who will face chavismo, probably represented by the dictator Nicolás Maduro, in the presidential elections scheduled for 2024.
“Today the candidacy period begins. Last week we held an information session with the pre-candidates,” said Jesús María Casal, president of the National Primary Commission (CNP), in an interview with local radio station Éxitos, without giving any data on the number of subscribers so far.
According to the information, the CNP will accept applications, which must be presented in person by the pre-candidates, until the 23rd of June. The process takes place after the institution postponed the start of this phase, which was previously scheduled for May 24.
Although the names of those who will formalize their candidacies are not yet known, leaders such as the former governor of Miranda, Henrique Capriles, and former deputy María Corina Machado have already formalized their intentions in the pre-registration that began in May.
The president of the CNP also informed that the commission would request a meeting this Monday with the National Electoral Council (CNE), with the objective of sealing a request for technical assistance in the voting. The request and tentative agreement proposed by the commission, however, is an issue that has been criticized by some sectors of anti-Chavismo, who accuse the country’s electoral body of favoring the Venezuelan regime.
María Corina Machado and other leaders reject the CNE’s intervention in the primaries because they consider that this calls into question the secrecy of voters’ identity, an aspect that, according to Casal, will be resolved in the cooperation agreement.
“A point has been reached where there is protection of the voter’s identity, despite using the fingerprint scanner, this would only have the function of preventing identity theft, but would not be used to store data, to conserve data or to elaborate lists of opponents,” said Casal.
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