At midnight this Thursday, the time established by the National Electoral Council (CNE) for the 10 candidates, nine from the opposition and incumbent president Nicolas Maduro, to put an end to their campaigning tours to present their government programs and meet the media.
As announced since last July 20, the capital became a whirlwind of people from 10:00 local time with hundreds of thousands of people mobilizing in different points of Greater Caracas, and until 22:00 local time.
Nahum Fernandez, member of Maduro’s campaign team, told the press yesterday that the people will come down from everywhere to show the affirmative spirit of Venezuelans.
“It will be a great mobilization, as never seen before”, the member of the leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela assured. Artistic events such as music and circus shows, theater and traditional games are scheduled for the day.
The National Institute of Terrestrial Transportation informed of the temporary closure of eight major avenues in the capital city since yesterday afternoon, in order to guarantee what they called the “Toma de la Gran Caracas” (Takeover of Greater Caracas).
Commenting on the campaign of the candidate of the Great Patriotic Pole, Fernandez pointed out that they visited more than 270 cities and towns of all the states of the country, where they were received by hundreds of thousands of followers.
The President closed his tours through the regions yesterday with a huge rally in Yaracuy, Portuguesa and Lara, all in the northwest, and affirmed that “one can see and feel in these lands that on July 28 Maduro is President”.
Foreign Minister Yván Gil welcomed yesterday international observers, among them former Presidents Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic and Ernesto Samper of Colombia, as well as electoral experts from the African Union, China and the president of the Malaysian National Confidence Party, Mat Sabu.
More than 635 international observers will supervise Sunday’s elections, the 31st since the arrival of the Revolution, among which are the United Nations Panel of Experts, the Carter Center of the United States, the Council of Latin American Electoral Experts, the Brics group, and others.
The day before, more than 380,000 troops of the Strategic Operational Command of the National Armed Forces and another 180,000 officers of the Police, firefighters, civil protection and other security and protection agencies were deployed throughout the country as part of the Plan República.
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