A Venezuelan casts the receipt of his electronic vote. Photo: IG/@fundacitezulia.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—At 8:00 a.m. this Sunday, May 25, Rosalba Gil Pacheco, president of the Civil and Electoral Registry Commission and National Electoral Council (CNE) rector, announced the start of the legislative and regional elections in Venezuela.
She noted that 569 positions are being elected this Sunday, including 289 deputies to the National Assembly, 24 governors, and 260 state legislators.
Gil reported that the attendance of CNE technical and operational staff, as well as polling station members, was 100 percent, and that 94.77 percent of the polling stations had been set up and opened at that time.
The process involves 15,736 voting centers, 27,713 polling stations, 6,687 nominated candidates, and 21,485,669 eligible voters. There are 54 political and indigenous organizations participating.
She noted that 1,400 national and international observers are present at the election and thanked the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), the CNE staff, and polling station members for their extraordinary work.
Diosdado Cabello: Peace
After casting his vote around noon in MaturĂn, Monagas state, United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) General Secretary Diosdado Cabello stated that the elections were proceeding without disruptions throughout the country.
“There isn’t a single place where there’s been a disturbance, not a single one,” Cabello emphasized, confirming the normality at each polling station. Referring to the recent incursions by mercenaries into the country and their collusion with far-right opposition leaders, he attributed the absence of incidents to a “very well-functioning intelligence system.” This system, he explained, receives vital information from citizens in working-class areas. “The people know when someone arrives who isn’t from the area,” he emphasized, highlighting the civic-political-military unity that characterizes the Bolivarian Revolution.
President Maduro, communal electoral system and constitutional reform
From the SimĂłn RodrĂguez National Bolivarian Ecological School in Caracas, President Nicolás Maduro exercised his right to vote this Sunday afternoon. The head of state highlighted that hundreds of national and international observers from more than 54 countries are present at these elections to observe once again the democratic and proactive process taking place in Venezuela.
After exercising his right to vote, the Venezuelan president announced that a new electoral system for communal districts will be built in the territory where families live, with a system of ongoing consultations. “Venezuela needs to modernize, expand, and bring to life the political system to build a new electoral system. That’s why I believe, and that’s why I’m going to work on it to present it to the new National Assembly [in 2026]: the constitution of a new electoral system. The reform of all electoral laws. And the creation of the electoral system for communal districts as Venezuela’s new consultation and election system.” He called for a reengineering of everything: where people vote, how they vote. “Let there be a reengineering to update it.”
“We need to be architects and create an electoral system that exists in the territory where human beings live, where men and women live,” President Maduro added, while informing that he had “spoken with the Constitutional Reform Commission, and we have agreed to prepare a more open, more communicative, and timely consultation system, in order to submit the Constitutional Reform bill to the New National Assembly in January 2026.”
Venezuela Heads to the Polls Amid Divided Opposition and United Chavismo
Voting extension
Elvis Amoroso, CNE’s president, announced at approximately 6:00 p.m. that the electoral process will be extended for one more hour. If, after that hour, there are voters in line at polling stations, they must remain open until everyone has voted.
Amoroso said the decision was made because there were still voters at the polling stations. “We have decided to extend the time for another hour or until the lines at various polling stations are clear. People of Venezuela: anyone still waiting in line can continue to rest assured.”
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/JB
