The camp of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whose re-election as president in 2018 was not recognized by part of the international community, achieved a landslide victory in the local elections that took place yesterday, Sunday, according to the National Electoral Council. According to the results, the ruling camp in Venezuela won twenty out of 23 governor positions. Maduro's camp also won the mayoralty of Caracas against a divided opposition that participated for the first time in an election since 2017, after previously boycotting presidential and legislative elections, as reported by France Presse.
Venezuelans headed to the polls yesterday in local elections that were supposed to represent a significant challenge for the electoral authorities and opposition politicians who were competing for votes against Maduro's government for the first time in four years. The Venezuelan opposition boycotted the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2018 and 2020, respectively, accusing Maduro's government of fraud, according to Reuters.
Reports indicate that if the opposition loses the governorships of the four regions they won in 2017, out of 23 regions, they will lack a strong base to launch a campaign for the presidential elections scheduled for 2024. Members of the election commission stated that the voting would test the neutrality of the commission, which included two opposition members among its five senior directors since May, making it the most balanced in 17 years. Observers from the European Union were present at about 1,000 out of 14,400 polling stations, marking the first European mission of its kind since 2006.
