Venezuela: Socialist Party Begins Candidate Selection for Municipal Vote as Opposition Mayors Seek Reelection
Caracas, June 9, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s United Socialist Party (PSUV) and political allies held thousands of assemblies to propose candidates for upcoming municipal elections on July 27.
On Saturday and Sunday, party grassroots organizations met all over the country to put forward contenders for 335 mayoral posts and 2,471 local council seats.
PSUV official Pedro Infante told local media that more than 47 thousand assemblies took place on Saturday in an “extraordinary example of democracy.”
“There were lots of women participating, lots of youth from communities,” Infante stated. “This consolidates the idea of the people deciding who should run the municipal governments and councils.”
Following the local gatherings, grassroots leaders uploaded the community candidate proposals via an internal party platform. The PSUV leadership, alongside allied forces, will then decide on the candidate lists and submit them before the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Although there has been no official announcement, PSUV sources who asked to remain anonymous told Venezuelanalysis that Carmen Meléndez will run for reelection in the Libertador municipality in Caracas. Meléndez, who previously served as Lara state governor, won in a landslide in the 2021 municipal contest.
The last local elections saw most Venezuelan opposition forces return to the ballot and win 123 mayoralties. However, turnout for the upcoming vote may suffer as far-right forces, led by María Corina Machado, continue to urge a boycott of elections as they look to enforce their claim of victory in the July 2024 presidential contest.
The electoral authority announced that candidacy submissions will be open from June 9 to 13. While most anti-government parties have yet to announce their plans, opposition mayors from wealthier East Caracas municipalities have pledged to run for new terms. Gustavo Duque, Darwin González and Elias Sayegh, from the Fuerza Vecinal party, will seek new terms as mayors in Chacao, Baruta and El Hatillo, respectively. The local politicians broke ranks with Primero Justicia in 2017 to run for office in the traditional opposition strongholds before leading the formation of Fuerza Vecinal in 2021.
Municipal elections and popular consultation
Last Wednesday, CNE President Elvis Amoroso announced the municipal election date and the accompanying calendar. The electoral campaign will run from July 11 to 24. With municipal four-year terms expiring in December, the Venezuelan Constitution establishes that new elections must take place this calendar year.
Venezuelan Indigenous peoples will elect their representatives to local councils, in accordance with their customs, on August 3.
Venezuela had legislative and regional elections on May 25 that saw the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) led by the PSUV emerge with sizable majorities.
According to the CNE, the GPP received 83 percent of the vote, with the two main opposition alliances getting 6 and 5 percent each. Official figures placed turnout at 28 percent, though results broken down by polling station were not made available. The ruling coalition secured 23 of 24 governorships, with the opposition only holding on to Cojedes state.
The pro-government alliance likewise secured 253 out of 285 seats in the National Assembly. Nevertheless, the CNE did not clarify the allocation of seats via national list, with opposition forces granted 11 more deputies than they would have achieved via proportional representation as established in the electoral law.
The July 27 municipal vote coincides with a National Popular Consultation, an electoral process that sees communities choose local projects to receive state funding and be executed by grassroots organizations. The July consultation will be the third one held in 2025 and will reportedly focus on projects for the Venezuelan youth.
The previous processes were organized by the CNE but voting was conducted by paper ballot, with roughly one polling station in each of the 5,338 communal circuits spanning the Venezuelan territory. The electoral authority did not specify whether the two contests will run separately or if they will be combined.
Edited by José Luis Granados Ceja from Mexico City, Mexico.