CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela will go to the polls on July 28 to elect a president, election officials said on Tuesday, with incumbent Nicolas Maduro expected to run and his main opposition blocking his candidacy.
Last year, Maduro’s government and rebels brokered a deal in Barbados to hold a free and fair vote in 2024 with international observers.
On Tuesday, Elvis Amoroso, head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said the body’s members “unanimously” reached an agreement on July 28.
With the Barbados deal, the US eased sanctions on the South American country, allowed US-based Chevron to resume limited oil drilling and paved the way for a prisoner exchange.
Opposition candidates had to appeal past rulings that disqualified them.
However, the Maduro-loyal Supreme Court later upheld the 15-year ban on opposition primary winner Maria Colina Machado and other opposition politicians.
As a result, the United States announced that it would reimpose some of the sanctions.
Last month, President Maduro said that “those in power” will definitely win.
“We are the people in power… We will win one way or another,” Maduro told thousands of supporters in the capital, Caracas, who were marching on the 32nd anniversary of the failed coup led by Hugo Chavez, who later became president and named Maduro as his successor.
