Venezuela's congress names new elections council leaders

The council's new leadership, which also includes 10 substitute deputies, will oversee elections for state governors that are expected to be held in December. Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the United States as Venezuela's legitimate president, dismissed the new elections council as fraudulent.

Venezuela's congress on Tuesday named new leadership of the nation's elections council, a process that has been keenly observed by Western diplomats who are seeking ways to pressure for free and fair elections in the South American nation. The United States and Europe have for years accused President Nicolas Maduro of using the elections council to stack votes in favor of the ruling Socialist Party. Maduro's 2018 re-election was broadly boycotted and widely dismissed as a farce.

The new board of five directors, which was approved by a Socialist Party dominated legislature, includes two opposition-linked members: Enrique Marquez, a former legislator, and Roberto Picon, an engineer who has advised the opposition. The other three are Alexis Corredor and Pedro Calzadilla, former officials in Maduro's government, and Tania D'Amelio, a member of the prior elections council who was accused by the opposition of being partial to the Socialist Party.

"They will be the administrators of the voice of the people that will be expressed in elections in the next seven years in Venezuela," said congress chief Jorge Rodriguez during the session. Some diplomats have hoped that naming a new elections council would convince the Biden administration to soften sanctions on Venezuela that were created under the Trump administration in an effort to force Maduro from office.

A State Department official this week said that Venezuela is sending "signals" through recent actions including the release of former executives of refining company Citgo, but that Washington is waiting for concrete action toward free elections. The council's new leadership, which also includes 10 substitute deputies, will oversee elections for state governors that are expected to be held in December.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the United States as Venezuela's legitimate president, dismissed the new elections council as fraudulent. Guaido and his allies, who boycotted legislative elections in December 2020, do not recognize the current socialist-held congress as legitimate. He said on Twitter that the government was seeking to "impose" an electoral council and argued the body should be named through a broad agreement with the opposition that includes other reforms.

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