{"id":94732,"date":"2020-10-01T12:44:26","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T04:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=94732"},"modified":"2020-10-01T12:44:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T04:44:28","slug":"eu-keeps-up-pressure-on-venezuela-to-delay-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=94732","title":{"rendered":"EU keeps up pressure on Venezuela to delay election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/EU-keeps-up-pressure-on-Venezuela-to-delay-election.jpg\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/EU-keeps-up-pressure-on-Venezuela-to-delay-election.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>BRUSSELS, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The European Union again urged Venezuela to delay a Dec 6 parliamentary poll, saying that \u201cconditions now in place do not allow for fair, democratic, competitive elections\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Staffers from Brussels\u2019 European External Action Service (EEAS) spent five days last week meeting figures from the government and opposition, including leaders Juan Guaido and Henrique Capriles, as well as church representatives and business leaders, the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A senior European official said that the bloc is not confident that Pres Nicolas Maduro\u2019s government in Caracas will push back the election by six months as the EU has urged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re expecting a response within two weeks. After that, we\u2019ll consider it to be in the negative,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its statement, the EEAS said that \u201cwithout a postponement and an improvement in the democratic and electoral conditions, the EU cannot consider sending an electoral observation mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is the time for bold Venezuelan-owned decisions in support of a peaceful and democratic transition,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EU does not recognise Maduro as Venezuela\u2019s president, supporting instead Guaido, speaker of the National Assembly \u2014 the only democratically-elected state body in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently controlled by the opposition, its members\u2019 seats will be in play at the Dec 6 election. The European official said the regime\u2019s objective at the polls is to reclaim the speakership from Guaido.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The opposition in Caracas has split, with Guaido at the head of around 30 parties who have backed a boycott of the polls, while Capriles has called for voters to turn out en masse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A third opposition group with closer ties to the government has also urged high turnout and hopes to clinch large numbers of seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe EU doesn\u2019t plan to negotiate or take on a mediator\u2019s role in Venezuela,\u201d the official said. \u201cWe\u2019re just laying out the conditions for us to participate with an observer mission at the parliamentary vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nevertheless, if Caracas does not accept the bloc\u2019s demands to delay the ballot, \u201cthe EU will recognise neither the National Assembly, nor the Supreme Court,\u201d he added. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BRUSSELS, Oct 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The European Union again urged Venezuela to delay a Dec 6 parliamentary poll, saying that \u201cconditions now in place do not allow for fair, democratic, competitive elections\u201d. Staffers from Brussels\u2019 European External Action Service (EEAS) spent five days last week meeting figures from the government and opposition, including leaders Juan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":94734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94732"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/94734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}