Venezuela opposition urges boycott of vote to overhaul constitution

CARACAS: Venezuela's angry opposition called Sunday for a boycott of an upcoming vote that it dismisses as a ploy by President Nicolas Maduro to cling to power.
Ahead of next Sunday's election for a 500-plus member assembly to rewrite the constitution and give the president more power, the opposition also plans a general strike – the second in weeks – on Wednesday and Thursday and a big protest march on Friday.
It all makes for a dramatic week in the opposition's dogged drive to unseat the socialist Maduro, whom it blames for an acute economic crisis marked by shortages of food, medicine and such basics as soap and toilet paper.
Four months of almost daily street protests in this oil-rich OPEC member have left 103 people dead.
"Let them lock us all up. The fight must move forward," said Freddy Guevara, the deputy speaker of the opposition-controlled congress.
"The people of Venezuela must fuel the general strike. They must come to Caracas and help us prepare for the civic boycott," Guevara told a news conference. He insisted his supporters will not resort to violence.
Next Sunday's vote is supposed to be for a 545-seat constituent assembly that will draw its members not from political parties but rather social sectors that the opposition sees as loyal to Maduro, a former bus driver who was the handpicked successor of late socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez.
Maduro on Sunday urged the opposition to refrain from violence, respect the voting and let those who wish to cast ballots do so.
"I demand this of all the opposition leaders," Maduro told state TV.
On Saturday night he issued a warning about the vote and how the opposition behaves next weekend, "We will be relentless if they try to generate a process of violence in order to stop that which cannot be stopped". — AFP