Venezuela’s election timetable remains unsettled after acting president Delcy Rodríguez tied constitutionally required voting to reforms and participation guarantees in a Thursday address, but offered no date.
Rodríguez said a renewed electoral authority would organize every election required by the Constitution. She cited her earlier service as deputy foreign minister, foreign minister, minister and vice president as support for her claim that she knows the state and can guide the process.
She described a series of transition goals: legal reform, safeguards allowing every political force to take part, and elections that help settle disputes rather than deepen them. In her address, the political calendar depended on progress toward those objectives, rather than a date already chosen. An earlier EconoTimes report on Rodríguez’s reform-linked election timetable covered her position that legal and electoral changes should precede a presidential schedule.
MercoPress reported that the administration has negotiated with opposition groups since August. The outlet said the roadmap includes renewing the Supreme Court and National Electoral Council, as well as holding regional elections before a presidential vote. Opposition leader María Corina Machado rejects that order, MercoPress reported. The outlet also reported that the U.S. State Department has said Rodríguez should leave the presidency vacant in 2027 under the plan.
MercoPress reported that the National Assembly presented a proposed reform last week and that the Supreme Court declared it constitutional. Rodríguez called for broad public debate on the proposal. She said the public consultation would receive technical help from the European Union and that she had requested cooperation from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Machado returned to Venezuela four days before the address after an absence of nearly 10 months, MercoPress reported. The outlet said her first media briefing since returning was approaching. Rodríguez has served as acting president since January, after Nicolás Maduro was removed in a U.S. military operation, MercoPress reported.
