Venezuelan opposition says won’t contest April 22 polls without guarantees
Caracas, (MILLAT ONLINE):Venezuela’s opposition announced Wednesday it would not participate in April 22 presidential elections without guarantees that it would be free and fair.
It said doing so would lend “an appearance of legitimacy” to fraudulent polls designed to hand a second six-year term to unpopular President Nicolas Maduro.
“Do not count on the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), or the people, to endorse what until now is only a fraudulent and illegitimate simulation of the presidential election,” opposition coordinator Angel Oropeza told a press conference called to announce the result of weeks of opposition deliberations.
Maduro retorted that the elections would go ahead in April “with or without” the opposition coalition, and said he was also seeking to bring forward legislative elections by nearly two years to coincide with the presidential poll.
“We are going to the elections come rain, shine or lightning, with or without the MUD,” said Maduro, adding that he would also propose bringing forward the legislative vote — normally scheduled for 2020 — to “renew” the opposition-dominated parliament.
The opposition has accused the leftist president of engineering a second term for himself by bringing forward the presidential election from December.
“This premature and unconditional event…is just a government show to pretend a legitimacy that it does not have, in the midst of the agony and suffering of Venezuelans,” Oropeza said.
Without a rival in sight, Maduro seems certain to win re-election despite opinion polls showing a 75 percent unpopularity rating among Venezuelans angered by a worsening political and economic crisis, causing widespread food and medicine shortages.
Leading opponents have been barred from standing in the election.