Venezuela: Candidates Hold Final Campaign Rallies Ahead of Presidential Vote
Caracas, July 26, 2024 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan presidential candidates closed their electoral campaigns with big demonstrations as the country prepares for Sunday’s election.
On Thursday, large crowds gathered in Caracas’ Bolívar Avenue and surrounding areas for President Nicolás Maduro’s closing campaign rally. On a huge stage, Maduro, seeking a third six-year term, called on people to vote for peace and economic progress and to defy US imperialism.
“I completed a pilgrimage of more than 300 towns and cities. I went to the deep Venezuela in search of the truth of our people. It has been an admirable and festive campaign,” he told supporters. “Today, we have constituted a new political, social and cultural majority that will be expressed as an electoral majority on July 28th.”.
The president went on to stress that Sunday’s electoral result would represent a choice between “peace or violence, fascism or popular democracy, savage capitalism or Christian socialism, a sovereign nation or a [US] colony.”
The Chavista candidate urged people to strengthen the 1×10 voting mechanism. With this method, each community leader from the grassroots Socialist Party (PSUV) structures across the country mobilizes ten voters on election day.
“As a man of the left, a socialist, a Bolivarian, a Chavista, I ask Venezuela for your love and your vote to win the July 28th elections and open the gates to peace, stability and greatness,” he emphasized.
Maduro likewise recalled the right-wing track record of violent street protests, support for economic sanctions and calls for US intervention and claimed the opposition would be punished at the polls.
“Who asked for the criminal sanctions against Venezuela? Who asked for Venezuela to be invaded by the US army? Who brought the guarimba [violent street protests] to the whole country? Do you want a president of the extreme fascist right?” exclaimed the 61-year-old leader.
In his closing Caracas rally, as well as an earlier mobilization in western Zulia state, Maduro pledged to engage in national dialogue following Sunday’s elections. He additionally promised to deepen policies such as the Great Housing Mission (GMVV), loans for entrepreneurs and other social missions.
For his part, hardline opposition candidate Edmundo González held his final campaign rally in the wealthy Las Mercedes neighborhood in eastern Caracas. Far-right political leader María Corina Machado led the demonstration, as she has done during the campaign, and gave a speech calling people to vote.
“We want to tell all Venezuelans and the whole world that we are ready to vote and to win. I want to pay tribute to the men and women who are already deployed in all voting centers. I want to thank our witnesses, voting center members, operators and mobilizers […] You are the heroes and Venezuelans trust you,” she told supporters.
On Thursday morning, the two politicians gave a press conference where they signed an agreement establishing guiding principles for a future government. They vowed to secure an overwhelming victory on Sunday.
“The advantage we have is historic. We are going to win and we are going to collect, and we trust that our Armed Forces will make our people’s will be respected,” 74-year-old Edmundo read from his speech.
For her part, Machado said her political platform had over one million people deployed inside and outside Venezuela to safeguard the vote, among them 90,000 witnesses at electoral centers and 66,000 “comanditos” for voter mobilization.
The opposition politician suggested that her followers vote early, stay in polling centers until the end, help mobilize neighbors, register participation, report irregularities and be present for the public audits performed in randomly chosen voting machines after polls close.
Venezuelan voters will choose their president for the 2025-2030 period from a field of 10 candidates. The National Electoral Council (CNE) has set up more than 16,000 voting centers across the country.
The elections will also count on several observation missions, including teams from the Latin American Council of Electoral Experts and the Carter Center, as well as a UN expert panel that will produce a report for the organization’s Secretary General.
On Wednesday, Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court announced it would not send experts to observe Sunday’s elections in response to Maduro’s remarks regarding Brazil’s electoral system. The Venezuelan leader had previously stated that Brazil, the United States and Colombia’s electoral systems lacked the same amount of safeguards as the Venezuelan one.
Former Argentinian President Alberto Fernández likewise announced on Thursday that he would not accompany the upcoming vote after Venezuelan electoral authorities expressed their disagreement with public statements he made. A Colombian mission headed by Foreign Minister Luis Murillo was suspended as well over “scheduling issues.”