MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Machado urges Venezuelans not to vote next Sunday

“Let it be clear who has the power: you,” Machado underlined

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has called for a boycott of the May 25 regional and legislative elections, labeling them a “farce” and a “trap,” urging the citizenry to stay home. However, others standing up to Nicolás Maduro's regime suggested otherwise.

Machado insisted that the National Electoral Council (CNE) is controlled by the ruling Chavistas and recalled the alleged fraud in the July 2024 presidential elections, where Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner over Edmundo González Urrutia of her Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD). According to the PUD, the process is taking place under conditions that prevent a fair contest. However, other figures making up the opposition coalition, such as Henrique Capriles and parties like Un Nuevo Tiempo and Movimiento Por Venezuela plan to participate, viewing voting as a form of protest.

“Don't go out, don't obey them,” Machado stressed on social networks, urging Venezuelans to empty the streets and leave the government alone. Let it be clear who has the power: you,“ Machado also pointed out.

”We have to keep the democratic opposition alive,“ Capriles argued. ”I don't see how the voice of the Venezuelan people is going to be kept alive if it is not expressed,“ he added. ”To think that you are going to give a defeat to the government for not going to vote, it has not happened; you have already done it and it has not happened,” he further noted.