Venezuela announces parliamentary elections for April 27 amid opposition boycott

Venezuela announced on Monday that it will hold parliamentary and regional elections on April 27. However, the opposition has vowed to boycott the elections following last year’s vote, in which President Nicolás Maduro is widely accused of electoral fraud.

Maduro was sworn in for a contested third term earlier this month after claiming victory in the July 28 election, which the opposition insists was won by its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.

Elvis Amoroso, head of the National Electoral Council (CNE) said that all parties and candidates must sign a document “committing to respect” the electoral process, including “the results announced.”

Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who is currently in hiding, reiterated her call for a boycott of the upcoming elections last week.

“The elections were on July 28. That day the people chose,” she said in a video posted on social media.

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Maduro has been in power in 2013 since the death of his firebrand mentor, the late Hugo Chavez.

His first re-election in 2018 was also marred by fraud allegations but he has resisted international pressure and crippling US sanctions aimed at forcing him to step aside.

The ENC again proclaimed him victorious in July, without without providing a detailed breakdown of the vote.

The opposition published results from polling stations which it said showed a hands-down win for Gonzalez Urrutia, an elderly former diplomat, who has since been granted asylum in Spain.

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The United States, its partners in the Group of Seven leading economies and several Latin American countries have all backed the opposition’s victory claim.