The ruling party elected a president seeking a third consecutive term in the July 28 election.
Venezuela's ruling party has selected President Nicolas Maduro as its candidate for the next election.
The decision by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) was announced late Monday by Diosdado Cabello, who is considered number two in the ruling movement founded by the late Hugo Chávez and has been in power for 25 years. Maduro will seek a third consecutive term as president in the July 28 vote.
Maduro, 61, is widely expected to seek re-election in a vote in which challengers from the main opposition parties are barred from running.
“We will continue to travel throughout the country to build more and more military and civil organizations to achieve electoral victory this year,” Maduro said on his weekly TV show after Cabello's X announcement. but did not mention this.
The official launch of the PSUV was scheduled for March 15th.
Priority: A comprar alpargatas que lo que viene es joropo, las bases del PSUV decideron, Nicolás Maduro candidato Presidential, 4.240.032 Participaron. Unidos Nosotros Venceremos!! pic.twitter.com/DIVGhNstmc
— Diosdado Cabello R (@dcabellor) March 11, 2024
Mr. Cabello wrote on X that 4,240,032 people participated in the vote. “Unite we win!!” he wrote.
Mr Maduro's re-election to a six-year term in 2018 was widely seen as fraudulent, but was not recognized by the United States and dozens of other countries and was hit with a series of sanctions.
Instead, many countries recognized his poll rival Juan Guaido as interim president.
Four years after a rival shadow government collapsed, a war in Ukraine disrupted energy supplies and shifted global priorities, President Maduro still maintains a firm grip on power in the oil-rich country. .
He receives support not only from Cuba, Russia and China, but also from the political patronage system and the military.
“Fatally injured”
Last week, Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that elections would be held on July 28 in the South American country, which is still in dire economic straits.
This comes in response to a court ruling in Barbados last year in which the Maduro government and the opposition agreed to hold a free and fair vote in the presence of international observers, and the opposition candidate was disqualified from holding the presidential office. This was after the appeal was approved.
The deal allowed the U.S. to ease sanctions on Venezuela, allowed U.S.-based Chevron to resume limited oil extraction, and led to a prisoner swap.
But since then, the Maduro-loyal Supreme Court has upheld a 15-year ban on opposition primary winner Maria Colina Machado and others, prompting the US government to consider reimposing sanctions. .
President Maduro said in January that the Barbados agreement had been “mortally wounded” after government officials claimed they had thwarted a number of U.S.-backed plots to assassinate Maduro.
President Maduro has increased his public appearances in recent weeks ahead of the campaign period, which officially begins on July 4.
The CNE announced last week that it had extended invitations to election observers from the European Union and United Nations, the US-based NGO Carter Center, BRICS, the African Union and others.
The vote will take place on the birthday of Maduro's predecessor Chavez, who is still hailed by many Venezuelans as a hero of the revolution.
Presidential candidates can formally submit their candidacy to the CNE from March 21st to March 25th.
