Venezuela: they report that the opposition will end the boycott and register its candidates for this year’s elections

The Venezuelan opposition is ready to announce that end a three-year boycott in the elections and will register the candidates for the November elections, which will mark progress on a key issue in political negotiations with the regime of Nicolás Maduro.

The country’s main opposition parties are expected to jointly announce that they will participate in the national vote of mayors and governors scheduled for November 21., as they assured the agency Bloomberg seven people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Popular will, the party of the interim president, Juan Guaido, and who was very reluctant to participate, will join the ad, which will likely be done over the weekend or Monday, the people said.

The opposition withdrew from the 2018 presidential and 2020 legislative elections, which they called fraudulent. Participation in the November vote is a central issue in a new round of negotiations with the regime that will resume on September 3 in Mexico City. Politicians called on Maduro to establish basic electoral guarantees to ensure a free and fair electoral process, and to invite international observation missions.

One of the reasons the opposition decided to run is that the European Union is leaning towards the deployment of an election observation mission in November.two of the people pointed out. The EU said it would only monitor the vote if the opposition participatedthey added.

For its part, Maduro’s regime allows exiled politicians to return and stand for election, and allowed the country’s main opposition coalition to participate in the elections. Some of these leaders have been barred from participating in politics. Opposition participation in elections would boost Maduro’s chances of getting the United States to reduce some economic sanctions.

Although the candidate registration deadline expires on Sunday, the National Electoral Council may delay it, according to two people. Leaders of a dozen opposition parties are trying to avoid running multiple candidates in more than 20 gubernatorial races and more than 300 mayoral races, the people added.

Representatives of the main parties declined to comment. The National Electoral Council did not respond to a request for comment.

(With information from Bloomberg)

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