More than seven million Venezuelans voted in Sunday’s unofficial referendum held by the opposition to heap pressure on President Nicolas Maduro and repudiate his plan to rewrite the OPEC nation’s constitution, monitors said. “Today, July 16, dignity won and tyranny lost,” said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Sunday’s participation by nearly 7.2 million Venezuelan voters compared with 7.7 million opposition votes in the 2015 legislative elections, which they won by a landslide, and the 7.3 million votes for the opposition in a 2013 presidential poll narrowly won by Maduro. “We poor are going to be represented now,” said retirement home worker Iraiz Alfonzo, 45, as she stood in line for the assembly vote test run. He says the country is the victim of an “economic war” and that opposition protests are an effort to overthrow him with U.S. connivance, which Washington has denied.

Source: Dhaka Tribune July 17, 2017 04:18 UTC