MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez's brother to be replaced in encore of Venezuelan local elections

Argenis Chávez will not seek reelection plus he has also resigned as Governor of Barinas

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Friday announced a new candidate would seek to become governor of the state of Barinas which are to be held again on January 9 after the November 21 polls were annulled by electoral authorities in a much controversial decision.

“We have a challenge on January 9 and we are going to launch a new candidate to win the elections in Barinas as well, with a new candidate, supported by the people of Barinas, supported by all,” said Maduro during the inauguration ceremony of the Governor of La Guaira, José Alejandro Terán.

Barinas is the birthplace of former President Hugo Chávez. His brother Argenis has been defeated Nov. 21. But last Tuesday, the National Electoral Council (CNE) formally called for an encore of the local elections for Jan. 9, after the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) issued the order and annulled the Nov. 21 votes.

The Supreme Court's Electoral Chapter made the decision after receiving a constitutional protection action filed by Adolfo Superlano, claiming Freddy Superlano (with whom he has no relationship) had run despite being disenfranchised.

In this scenario, the national ruling party PSUV has announced the incumbent Argenis Chávez would not be seeking reelection this time around and that he would in fact resign as governor, handing over the baton to State Secretary General of the Interior Jesús Monsalve.

Maduro insisted it will be a “new candidate”, a “new program” and a new “force” for the state of Barinas and that PSUV's number two Diosdado Cabello was already in Barinas handling the issue.

Meanwhile, European Union Electoral Observation Mission (EU-EOM) deployed to Venezuela for the local and regional Nov. 21 elections are to leave the country this coming Sunday, it was announced.

Maduro had said the (EOM-EU) had not traveled to Venezuela as electoral observers but as “a delegation of spies.”

“Those were not international observers; they walked through the country freely deployed spying on the social, economic and political life of the country,” Maduro had said on TV.

He added the country's ”enemies“ had delivered a report ”full of improvisations“ and ”poorly written“, with which they sought to ”stain Venezuela.”