Venezuela: Opposition Leader Juan Guaido denounces 'false' electoral body

Venezuela’s opposition leader and acting President Juan Guaido, on June 13, said that the opposition would not recognize the "false" electoral body named by the country’s supreme court. This comes as his allies are reportedly planning to extend the current body. According to experts, an extension past the January 2021 deadline would allow Guaido to remain in the role even if the opposition calls to boycott the parliamentary elections.

“We do not recognise any false national electoral council,” Guaido told reporters during a virtual press conference.

Juan Guaido, who declared himself the acting president of the country in January 2019, is recognised as the legitimate president by thousands of Venezuelans as well as the US ad other western powers. On the other hand, Nicholas Maduro, who was sworn in for the second term in 2019, continues to claim to be the constitutional president of the South American nation. 

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Call for participation

According to the country’s constitution, the power to elect national electoral council remains with Congress, however, the Supreme court, which is viewed to be allied to Maduro, has named its own board after the legislature failed to do so. Meanwhile, Maduro has said that a new electoral board was necessary to elect a new National assembly after “five totally lost years”  under opposition-held legislatures. “I make a call for participation and permanent dialogue,” Maduro said in a state television address. On the other hand, opposition leaders have slammed the move saying that it was the ruling party’s attempt to rig the election due this year. 

Oil-exporting Venezuela was once among Latin America's wealthiest nations. But it has spiralled into an economic crisis, which critics blame on more than two decades of socialist rule launched by the late Hugo Chávez. Maduro was his hand-picked successor and has carried out the same polities, international media reported.

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(Image credits: AP)