Manuel Rosales (center), president of Venezuelan opposition party Un Nuevo Tiempo, speaks to the press, Caracas, May 10, 2023. Photo: Twitter/@partidoUNT.
Manuel Rosales, governor of the Venezuelan state of Zulia and president of the opposition party Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) highlighted the importance of the technical assistance of the National Electoral Council (CNE) in the opposition primaries. “How can I say that I do not want this CNE and then go to the presidential elections?” he said at a press conference in Caracas on Wednesday, May 10.
“I cannot deny the validity of the automated system that made me governor and that allowed us to win in other states, and in Barinas,” Rosales stated, referring to the electoral victories of the opposition in the regional elections of 2021.
He affirmed that UNT will participate in the primary elections, without specifying who will be the party’s candidate.
“There is a group of leaders in our organization, and we are going to add music to the primaries,” Rosales said, in reference to the renowned Zulian bagpipes.
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He stressed that the primary elections must be as similar as possible to the presidential elections of 2024, which implies utilizing the CNE’s technical support.
UNT is in no hurry for the primaries
“If there is something that differentiates us from everyday politics, it is that we are not pressured by emotion, nor are we in a hurry,” Rosales said during the press conference. “We are within the time schedule established by the Primary Commission, so we will announce a candidate for process, scheduled for October 22.”
Rosales pointed out that the CNE “does not belong to any political party; it belongs to all Venezuelans, and we have the right to ask for its support, unless the primary election is a joke.”
The UNT president made these comments at the party’s national plenary meeting for the design of political actions, which is part of the party’s federal congress to elect its national leadership.
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Rosales calls out hatred and slander within the opposition
Rosales emphasized that this is not the moment to sow doubts about the primaries “nor to create a scene to discredit those who are participating in it,” referring to the internal conflicts of the opposition.
He also emphasized that he would not call for abstention, because “we cannot afford hatred and lies, causing the process to end badly. We cannot afford to set up a big trap in which nobody wins and we all lose. That is why we defend the primaries, and we believe that it is necessary.”
Furthermore, he claimed that he has been victim of the worst kind of slander in the country, coming from the opposition itself.
Similarly, UNT vice president Luis Emilio Rondón stated that his party is committed “to give the country the opportunity to participate and to reduce electoral abstention.”
(Últimas Noticias) by Reina Lara Lilo
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/KZ
