Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has proposed an early elections for the National Assembly, which is headed by opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Speaking at a rally in the capital, the president on Monday said, “Let’s hold elections for the National Assembly. Let’s have a peaceful solution, electoral, democratic, constitutional.”
However, Maduro did not give an exact new date for the proposed election.
“We will legitimise the sole institution which has not been legitimised in the last five years,” Al Jazeera quoted Maduro as saying.
The president made his remarks during a demonstration to mark the first anniversary of his re-election.
“We are going to measure ourselves electorally … we are going to bring forward elections of the National Assembly,” Maduro told a crowd of red-shirted supporters.
The opposition won a majority in the National Assembly in 2015 and the next congressional elections are currently scheduled for late 2020.
During his speech, Maduro said that he believes in peace and dialogue, describing the peace talks between the government and the opposition in Norway as “positive” and expressing his confidence that they would soon reach an agreement.
“I am going to commit myself, with effort and with dedication, so that Venezuela sooner or later has a peace agreement,” he said.
Maduro accuses Guaido of staging a US-backed coup against his socialist administration and says he will face justice.
Guaido invoked the country’s constitution in January to declare himself interim president after saying Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate.
The United States and most western countries recognise Guaido as the country’s leader, while Maduro maintains the support of Russia, China and Cuba, as well as Venezuela’s state institutions, including the military. (UNI)
