Opposition Demands Voter Registration Opening Ahead of Potential Election in Venezuela

The youth wing of the opposition party Primero Justicia (PJ) demanded this Wednesday that the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela open the voter registry in the South American country, ahead of a potential call for elections, four months after the detention of Nicolás Maduro in the United States. The vice president of PJ Training in the state of Zulia (northwest, bordering Colombia), María Gabriela Retamoza, explained to EFE that there must be a real opening of this process with a clear schedule so that young people can register or update their data in the Electoral Registry. The leader pointed out that machines for registration must be installed in each municipality of the country. "There must be a real opening here, the machines belong to the people and must be visible to everyone," she said. The young people tried to deliver a letter with these demands at the CNE headquarters in Zulia state, but it was not received by the authorities. For her part, the deputy president of PJ in Zulia, Alicia Cueva, indicated that for young people to be part of the political change in Venezuela, they need "to have their rights," including the right to participate. "From today we start working on this and we will not leave them alone, because rights must be for everyone and must be respected equally for everyone," she pointed out. On Monday, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said that elections in the Caribbean country should occur in the next 12 months "at the latest." Machado reiterated the need to accelerate elections in her country, although always following the plan of the Administration of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, during her participation in the Global Conference 2026 held by the Milken Institute in Los Angeles (California). To date, Venezuelan authorities have relegated the electoral issue to the background, prioritizing the economy, and last March 2, the president of the Parliament, the Chavista Jorge Rodríguez, indicated that it was not "imperative" to define a date for elections. EFE