2023-10-23 10:57:34
After a very hectic day, in which more than a million people went to the polls to choose the opposition candidate who will face the ruling party in the 2024 presidential elections, the National Primary Commission declared the leader as the winner. opposition María Corina Machado. Machado, As the polls announced, he obtained 93% of the votes with 26% of the scrutiny.
The candidate of Vente Venezuela, in the primary elections organized by the Venezuelan opposition, had requested from early hours of the day a “massive” participation in the vote and had warned of the “pressure to persecute and close centers.”
“We have been working for many years for this day to come. And it arrived. I want to ask everyone to help in the process,” Machado declared following voting in Santa Eduvigis, in the east of Caracas.
“Today is the beginning of a new stage. Today it is giving us the boost we want. I will be monitoring the process all day. I must say that our expectations fell short,” she insisted.
Opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado votes during the opposition primary elections while her children wait in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, October 22, 2023. | Photo: AP
Machado is disqualified from holding public office for 15 years, which in theory would prevent her from registering her candidacy for next year’s presidential elections.
The primary is held five days following the signing of an agreement within a negotiation process between the government and opposition, which set the presidential elections for the second half of next year with observation by the European Union and other international actors.
“We are being part of a citizen history and what we have seen today is a citizen avalanche inside and outside Venezuela,” Machado said in a press conference prior to the announcement of results. The primary was also held in 28 countries.
Maria Corina Machado, aspiring opposition presidential candidate, gestures to her supporters during a rally in Valencia, Carabobo state, Venezuela, on October 5, 2023. The opposition will hold its primaries on October 22. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) | Photo: AP
Reactions to election day
Carlos Prosperi, another of the favorite candidates in the primaries, denounced that only 60% of the centers worked effectively due to “many improvisations, which is a consequence of not having installed the tables when they should have been done, on Friday or, failing that, , Saturday”.
“We must show the country, the world and, particularly, these criminals who govern us, that they will not be able to defeat us. They have been trying to tame Venezuela for 24 years and they have not been able to and will not be able to,” he warned from San Antonio de Los Altos, in the state of Miranda.
“They lost. Today a new country is being born. This is a milestone in Venezuelan history. “It is the beginning of the process of redemocratization, of return to politics, of citizen participation that has no turning back,” said the candidate of the Movement for Venezuela.
“Demonstration of strength”
Many voting centers remained open following 4:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. GMT) when the closure was stipulated. Venezuela, by law, does not allow polling stations to be closed while there are voters there waiting to vote.
In popular neighborhoods, traditionally bastions of Chavismo, thousands of people lined up to participate.
A center was installed, for example, in the middle of the avenue in front of a residence. About a thousand people waited to vote under a heavy followingnoon downpour, protecting themselves with umbrellas and cardboard.
People participate in the primaries in Venezuela | Photo: REUTERS
“They kicked us out of school and moved us here because some people protested, supposedly threw stones, and well, here we are,” said merchant Luigi Pellegrino, 59, who had been in line for six hours.
Machado said that voting centers in at least four states in the country ran out of ballots when there were still no voters in line. “It is an unequivocal demonstration of the force that has been deployed today,” he said.
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