CARACAS – Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has announced that polling stations will remain empty during Venezuela’s local and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 25. Speaking in an interview with the French news agency AFP, Machado called for a complete boycott of the vote, roughly ten months after the controversial re-election of President Nicolás Maduro in July 2024. 

Machado described the upcoming elections as “a big joke” orchestrated by the regime to distract from its defeat on July 28, 2024. “We will confirm this defeat through massive absence and rejection. We will leave all polling stations empty,” she stated firmly. 

Independent observers and human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly accused Maduro’s government of widespread electoral fraud, intimidation, and systematic human rights abuses, including political violence and torture against opponents. 

The call for boycott underscores ongoing political turmoil in Venezuela, as the opposition seeks to challenge the legitimacy of Maduro’s regime through non-participation in what they deem to be a rigged electoral process.