By Vivian Sequera
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela will hold its presidential election on July 28, the head of the national electoral council Elvis Amoroso said on Tuesday.
President Nicolas Maduro is expected to run for re-election, but it is unclear who he will face as an opposition challenger after Maria Corina Machado, who overwhelmingly won an October opposition primary, had a public office ban upheld by the Supreme Court in January, prompting a reinstatement of sanctions by the United States.
The election date is the also the birthday of late President Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, who died in 2013.
The government and the opposition had agreed in an October electoral deal that the vote would take place in the second half of 2024, that international observers – including from the European Union and United Nations – would oversee the vote and that each side would be allowed to choose its candidate.
Some opposition figures had expressed doubts at the time that Maduro would uphold the deal, fears which seem to have been borne out with the continued restriction on Machado.
(Reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb)
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