Nicolás Maduro said that the military will look for citizens in their homes to take them to vote in the parliamentary elections

Amid international pressure and the demand for free and transparent elections, this Tuesday Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro reiterated that the parliamentary elections called by Chavismo for next December 6 will not be suspended.

“Rain, thunder or lightning, we are going to go to parliamentary elections (…) It is impossible to suspend the elections. If any date is sharp, determined and decisive by the Constitution, it is the date of January 5, 2021 as an obligation to install a new National Assembly “said the Chavista leader during a day prior to returning to school, broadcast on the national network.

In addition, Maduro announced that he will further militarize the elections, considered “fraud” by much of the opposition and the international community. “The Bolivarian National Armed Forces will protect the voter from the door of his house to the voting center, and from the voting center to his home”, said the dictator, justifying that decision to the health risks of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is very different that protected people go to the voting centers with all the protection measures, it is the safest thing that Venezuelans are going to do in the remainder of the year,” he added.

This supposed “biosecurity plan” It is interpreted as an intimidating movement by the Chavista dictatorship for Venezuelans to go to the polls, since voting in the country is a right, not an obligation, and ordering the military to “accompany” citizens could reduce the high levels of abstention that are likely to take place in an election marked by the pandemic and the absence of the opposition.

Furthermore, the latest pollsters estimate that abstention in the elections, given the non-participation of a large part of the opposition arch, could reach 70%. Already in the 2018 presidential elections, which were not recognized by the opposition and much of the international community, a record of abstention was registered, despite the data released at that time by Chavismo.

With this announcement, Maduro made clear his position of not addressing the claim of the European Union (EU) to postpone the elections so that the minimum conditions are guaranteed. Last Saturday the bloc considered that there is not enough time to send an electoral observation mission to Venezuela if the elections are held for December 6., since the preparation of this type of missions requires time and the current deadline is “too short”.

A spokeswoman for the supranational bloc confirmed that they have received an invitation from the Venezuelan government to participate as observers in the legislative elections, as well as “a list of additional guarantees for the transparency of the electoral process.” “Minimum conditions must be met to send an EU Election Observation Mission. In addition, there is a long waiting time to prepare to send a complete mission. There is not enough time left if the elections are held for December 6 “the spokeswoman stressed.

The EU had already asked Venezuela for a “precise response (…) to the minimum requirements requested by the opposition” regarding the holding of the votes after determining in mid-August that at that time the conditions were not met for send a community observation mission to the country.

The president in charge of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, asked the European Union on Tuesday to set the “minimums” that it considers necessary for the holding of elections in Venezuela.

He argued that “from Europe they should set what those minimums are” for there to be elections and “turn this process into a solution process and not for the dictatorship to use it to stabilize the economic disaster, the refugee crisis and the current fuel crisis” , when in the country with the largest oil reserves there is “almost 80 percent fuel shortage.”

Guaidó insisted on the importance of unity in the opposition ranks at this time so that the conditions are given for the holding of democratic elections, highlighting that the pact signed by 37 parties and more than a hundred organizations is unanimous in the “rejection of fraud” that Maduro seeks to commit in the December elections.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC:

Juan Guaidó asked the EU to set the “minimums” necessary to hold the elections in Venezuela

The United States evaluates sanctioning opponents who support Nicolás Maduro

Spain asked for “democratic guarantees” for the elections in Venezuela