July 30th, 2017 - Fort Russ News -
- Al Mayadeen - - translated by Samer Hussein -
Venezuelan voters are heading to the polls in order to vote for the new constituent assembly which will have power to re-write the constitution.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has already promised the new assembly will work for the interests of all citizens, while aiming to preserve peace, following a four month period of protests, staged by the US-backed Venezuelan opposition, some of which turned violently.
The US-backed opposition parties, however, is boycotting the vote, calling it “fake”, and its supporters have made plans to hold nationwide demonstrations during the day, some of which already sparked violent clashes with security forces, adding that the opposition will “do its best” to prevent the vote from succeeding.
A representative of the opposition said that the vote would not take place at some 50 polling stations because protesters destroyed the voting booths or prevented the government from installing them.
Yesterday, dozens of opposition supporters burned voting booths in two public schools in the western state of Tachira.
By casting their votes, the voters today will decide whether they want to move ahead with the formation of a new Constituent Assembly, which will be composed of 545 members out of more than 6,100 candidates, a vast majority of them being linked to Maduro’s Socialists.
Opposition, however, asked people to boycott the vote because, as it claims, the new Constituent Assembly would allow Maduro to dissolve the opposition-dominated Congress, postpone future elections and rewrite the electoral rules to prevent the Socialists from losing the election.
The United States has been putting pressure on the Venezuelan government to cancel the vote for a while now, while openly expressing its support fro the pro-Washingtonite opposition.
Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on 13 leaders of the Socialist Party.
In a not so very democratic fashion, the administration of US President Donald Trump threatened to take additional economic measures, should the vote succeed.
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