There is already a date for the primary elections of the democratic opposition of Venezuela: October 22. The announcement of the National Commission of Primaries was received with applause, including the shouts of the traditional “yes we can”, when a good number of leaders have already made public their interest in obtaining the presidential candidacy.
“The primaries are an exercise of citizen and political rights. Opinion studies are compelling: the majority of Venezuelans support their holding,” certified Jesús María Casal, president of the Commission, made up of a group of experts that, strange as it may seem, It does have the support of the vast majority of the opposition.
The electoral schedule will begin at the end of the month with the swearing in of the regional boards and in April with the invitation to international observers and the publication of regulations. As a step prior to the start of the campaign, at the end of August, the nomination of the candidates will take place.
At the moment and despite the civil war that is going on within the opposition, the Commission chaired by Casal has scored two goals: the confirmation of the date of the long-awaited primaries and the bet that Venezuelans who have fled the country, more than seven million and around 4.5 million old enough to do so, according to the calculations of the different organizations.
Voters who, on the contrary, will not be able to vote in the presidential elections because they are not registered in the electoral roll. Both Hugo Chávez in his day and Nicolás Maduro today have made voting abroad as difficult as possible, knowing that the vast majority are anti-Chavistas.
The great unknown, and cause for internal dispute, is whether these primaries will be held with the participation of the National Electoral Council (CNE), under the control of Chavismo. At the moment a technical table has been created with the revolutionary entity, but Casal himself assured that contacts have not been resumed since December.
For a part of the opposition, it would be a serious mistake to allow the Chavista CNE to supervise these elections, despite the advantages of using the polling stations and machinery. For the other, if the objective is to defeat Nicolás Maduro in 2024 in elections that will be held under the umbrella of the Bolivarian body, what better than to start in the primaries themselves.
In the 2012 opposition primaries, the organizers destroyed the voting books because Chavismo maneuvered to learn the identity of the opponents.
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