Elections in Venezuela: Edmundo González refuses to sign pledge to recognize results

Venezuela's presidential candidates revealed their positions this Tuesday, some of them hostile, on the proposal of President Nicolás Maduro. Sign the pledge to ratify the election results on July 28.

The idea, developed last week by the official campaign command and reiterated by Maduro on Monday, was criticized this Tuesday by the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the candidate of the main opposition coalition. Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

“Why sign an agreement, the first government to violate the agreements it signed, where we have the Barbados agreements.The former ambassador told reporters – at the end of a meeting with leaders in Caracas – referring to the agreement reached with the executive last October.

In this document of electoral guarantees, the parties agreed, among other institutions, that the EU would observe elections, which would not happen by canceling the invitation to the Community Assembly.

For his part, the candidate José Prieto felt that “in a normal country” there would be no need to sign treaties knowing the results, Because elections are “transparent” and “the majority respects the minority.”

“If there is a transparent process, the debtors will not be afraid of it (…), if there is respect for citizens' participation, we should not show signing this or that contract. During an interview with the channel, the vice chancellor criticized the PUD Globovision.

Additionally, Assemblyman Luis Eduardo Martinez reiterated his willingness to sign the pledge. and “waiting to be invited” by the National Electoral Council (CNE) to sign that document.

More than 21.6 million Venezuelans are invited to participate in the elections, in which Maduro is set to take office for a third consecutive term.

On the other hand, opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Monday that the international community, especially all European governments, could. Do “more” in favor of democracy in Venezuela With six weeks to go before the presidential election.

The (Maduro) regime should know that there is international monitoring and surveillance of the electoral process.Machado said from Venezuela via video call to the Spanish Senate, though it maintains it is withdrawing its invitation to the EU as an observer.

Machado won the PUD primary with 92.35% of the vote, but he could not be a presidential candidate because he was still ineligible to hold elected office, so he was replaced by Edmundo González Urrutia. When asked by senators, the opposition leader pointed out that given the great reputation of European monitoring missions, we must “put more pressure” on Chavismo to reconsider the decision to withdraw the EU's presence in the elections, he promised.

The outcome of the electoral process will have an impact not only on Venezuela and its future generations, but on the entire region and the entire West.Machado predicted.

(with information from EFE)