Venezuela Sets Date for Parliamentary Elections and Political Showdown

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The head of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, the CNE, finally announced that the election for all 167 seats in the National Assembly will be held on December 6, 2015, and that electoral campaigns will begin on November 13 and must end on December 3.  The announcement ended a cycle of uncertainty and recrimination in which jailed opposition leaders staged hunger strikes in demand of a date, since polls show that the opposition is likely to take the majority away from the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, or PSUV.  The PSUV carried out its primary elections as more foreign leaders tried (unsuccessfully) to gain access to jailed leaders, especially Leopoldo López.  Venezuela’s situation is so grave that some socialist leaders around the world and the region are beginning to fault President Nicolás Maduro.