Guaidó warns Maduro sabotaging presidential elections with Venezuelan electoral council 'resignations'

The president of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council and several other rectors of the electoral body announced their resignations on Thursday, a move that opposition leader Juan Guaidó believes was orchestrated by the communist President Nicolas Maduro regime to give the dictator an unfair advantage in the upcoming 2024 presidential elections.

The second item of discussion scheduled on Thursday's Venezuelan National Assembly agenda was the "acceptance of the resignation of the main and alternate rectors of the National Electoral Council."

In a brief statement, president of the National Electoral Council Pedro Calzadilla said he and the other rectors made the decision to “help Venezuela reach economic, political, and social stability,”  and that their resignation will enable the National Assembly to appoint a new board that "represents the consensus and aspirations of the democratic sectors of the Venezuelan people."

The rectors did not give a specific reason as to why they were resigning from their posts, but it is commonplace for communist regimes to rotate and replace members in committee and council positions to create the appearance of democratic processes when in fact their decisions are driven from the top, ensuring the most loyal party members remain in positions of power. 

The move was viewed with extreme scrutiny by country’s political opposition, which has claimed  the council is biased toward Maduro’s governing communist  party, with the majority of the council’s 15 members being allied with the government.

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó said that with the resignation of the members of the electoral council, the ruling party is trying to sabotage the primaries and the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

"Maduro's dictatorship advances in sabotaging the primary and the presidential election," Guaidó posted on Twitter. "A tutelary CNE in which they do not trust and make uphill the use of State infrastructure (schools, CNE) to carry out the primary."

The resignation of the rectors comes almost four months before the Venezuelan opposition is set to hold a primary election to define the presidential candidate to run against the Maduro regime in the 2024 presidential elections.

Calzadilla and the seven other directors who resigned belong to Maduro’s party include Alexis Corredor and the alternate rectors Leonel Párica, Carlos Quintero, Gustavo Vizcaíno, Saúl Bernal, Rafael Chacón, and Francisco Garcés.