UTV | COLOMBO – Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, says the country’s main opposition parties are banned from taking part in next year’s presidential election.
He said only parties which took part in Sunday’s mayoral polls would be able to contest the presidency.
Leaders from the Justice First, Popular Will and Democratic Action parties boycotted the vote and said the electoral system is biased.
President Maduro insists the Venezuelan system is entirely trustworthy.
In a speech on Sunday, he said the opposition parties had “disappeared from the political map”.
“A party that has not participated today and has called for the boycott of the elections can’t participate anymore”, he said.
In October, the three main opposition parties announced they would be boycotting Sunday’s vote to elect mayors in more than 300 towns and cities.
They said the vote served what they called President Maduro’s dictatorship.
President Maduro’s governing Socialist Party is expected to win the largest number of votes in the mayoral elections, despite a worsening economic crisis characterised by shortages of basic goods and soaring inflation.
