Maduro Rejects Early Elections

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday rejected opposition demands for early elections or a referendum. Both sides have agreed to resume talks on December 6 to end the ongoing political and economic crisis.

“An electoral way out? Way out to where?” he said on his weekly television program. “Nobody should get obsessed with electoral processes that are not in the constitution.”

On Saturday, Maduro’s Socialist government and the opposition alliance Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) agreed to resume Vatican-mediated talks on December 6 to find a way out of a crisis that has the country reeling toward potential civil war and social breakdown, AFP reported.

In a joint statement, the two sides said they “solemnly agree that our political differences can only be settled strictly within the framework of the constitution, and along a democratic, peaceful and electoral path”.

But the statement did not lay out any specifics for an election, apart from agreeing to new elections for legislators in the state of Amazonas who were suspended from their posts by a court sentence last year.

The roadmap also pledged the two sides to “work together” on adding two seats to the National Electoral Council, which the opposition claims is stacked with Maduro loyalists. Earlier this year, the electoral body and pro-Maduro Supreme Court rejected an opposition effort to get a recall referendum, plunging the country further into political deadlock.

Carlos Ocariz, a MUD negotiator, told AFP on Saturday the coalition would continue dialogue “until it obtains the most important thing: national elections and a recall referendum”.