Tibisay Lucena

CARACAS, Venezuela - The opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) is in crisis with some parties threatening to leave after 4 of 5 opposition leaders elected to governorship positions swore in before the Constituent Assembly, a body not recognized by the MUD.

CARACAS, Venezuela - The National Electoral Council (CNE) said that President Nicolás Maduro's ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won 17 of 23 state governorships in Sunday's election as parts of the divided opposition presented candidates while others abstained from the vote in protest and urged their followers to do the same.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council has said more than eight million people voted to grant President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling socialist party virtually unlimited powers with a constitutional assembly – a turnout more than double the estimates of both the government’s political opponents and independent experts.

Voting is under way in Venezuela to elect a new assembly with powers to rewrite the constitution, reported BBC.
The opposition is boycotting the vote which it says is a power grab by President Nicolás Maduro.

CARACAS, Venezuela - In a development that has angered the opposition, the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) has announced that the recall process against President Nicolás Maduro will conclude in 2017, meaning that if the recall goes through, new elections will not be held and Maduro's second-in-command will assume the presidency.