By Laura Gamba
BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Former lawmaker Maria Corina Machado is set to win the Venezuelan opposition's presidential primaries by a huge margin, which is turning her into the voters’ choice to face Nicolas Maduro in next year's elections.
In a preliminary report around Sunday midnight, the National Primary Commission announced that with 26% of the votes counted Machado was winning 93.13% of the vote, with a total of 552,430.
The long lines that formed on Sunday at the voting stations in Caracas and other cities around the world would account for the participation of about 2.3 million people, exceeding expectations by more than one million. Organizers said they would release additional results on Monday.
Although the road is not paved for Machado, who has been banned by the government from running in 2024 elections, the US has agreed to partially ease sanctions on the oil, gas and gold sectors in Venezuela as a response to a political agreement signed between representatives of the government of Maduro and the US-backed opposition to hold elections next year.
President Joe Biden´s government anticipated that it would continue easing sanctions if the Maduro government complies with its commitments on electoral guarantees including lifting bans that prevent key opposition figures from holding office.
Machado celebrated her victory with a group of supporters who gathered outside her campaign headquarters in the capital, Caracas.
“Today, very powerful forces have been unleashed,” she said. “Today, we have shown ourselves what we are capable of doing in the face of all the obstacles, in the face of all the abuses.”
Machado has promised to end the decade-long socioeconomic and political crisis in Venezuela that has been marked by hyperinflation, poverty and hunger, which has resulted in the largest recorded refugee crisis in the Americas.