Few Challengers in Sight, Venezuela Sets April 22 for Presidential Vote
7, 2018
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The Venezuelan government said Wednesday
that it would hold a snap presidential election on April 22, putting the unpopular administration of President Nicolás Maduro in the hands of voters at a time when most top challengers have been barred from running.
While Mr. Pantoulas said Venezuela’s electoral commission had been considered fair in the past, its credibility crumbled last year when the software company
that had installed voting systems said the results of the Constituent Assembly election had been tampered with.
Tillerson said that Our only objective is to see Venezuela return to its Constitution,
return its duly elected assembly, to hold free and fair elections,
Last year, the three biggest opposition parties boycotted local elections on grounds that they would not be fair.
"We are committed, as always, to our constitutional task, to guarantee the right conditions so
that democratic differences are settled through an efficient, transparent and balanced vote." It is unclear whether opposition parties will participate in the election, in which Mr. Maduro will seek another six-year term.
In December, the Constituent Assembly decreed that political parties that wanted to run must have participated in previous elections.
Mr. Maduro had been under increasing international pressure to hold elections since protests last year in which more than 100 people died.