VENEZUELA: Constituent Assembly To Call Presidential Elections This Year

(RTTNews) - Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly, controlled by representatives from the ruling administration, agreed on Tuesday to call presidential elections in the first four months of 2018.

The bill was raised by the representative Diosdado Cabello, number two in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Traditionally, Venezuela celebrates presidential elections in December.

The call has been one of the constant requests of the opposition to solve the political and social crisis in which the country is engulfed. The National Electoral Council must set the date of the elections, in which the president Nicolás Maduro could seek re-election after completing six years of office.

In the last presidential elections, held in April 2013, months after Hugo Chávez died, Maduro defeated the opposition leader Henrique Capriles.