Venezuelan President Maduro claims 'fair lead' ahead of controversial July 28 election
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, during a campaign rally just ten days before the July 28 election, confidently told supporters that he has a “fair lead.”
Maduro, whose 2018 re-election has been labelled fraudulent by the United States and several other countries, is vying for a third term. He first assumed the presidency following the death of Hugo Chavez in 2013.
"We are winning, and we are winning with a fair lead," Maduro proclaimed to his supporters in Petare, a neighbourhood in eastern Caracas. The rally saw Maduro dancing and singing with the crowd, as he assured them that "no one will sabotage" the vote.
Despite Maduro's confident assertion, opinion polls indicate he is at a 20-point disadvantage to opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, a former ambassador.
In the lead-up to the vote, the US State Department has criticised Venezuela for the “unjust” detention of democratic opposition figures, civil society members, and journalists. In a statement on Wednesday, July 17, they called for their immediate release.
“If they do not want Venezuela to fall into a bloodbath, into a fratricidal civil war, the ruling party must win the presidential elections on July 28,” Maduro stated at a campaign event in the Venezuelan capital the previous day.
Maduro's government has frequently faced accusations of vote-rigging and suppressing the opposition. His 2018 re-election was largely boycotted by the opposition and denounced as illegitimate by an alliance of 14 Latin American nations, Canada, and the United States. The Organisation of American States described the poll as a “farce.”
