Venezuela defines date for the 2024 presidential election 4:00

(CNN Spanish) --

Diosdado Cabello, first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), announced this Wednesday that the ruling political party will hold its congress on March 15 to "ratify the proposals made by the party's bases" and thus define their candidate towards the presidential elections scheduled for July 28.

The announcement comes a day after the Venezuelan National Electoral Council announced the date of the elections.

And it is possible that that day the PSUV will ratify the candidacy of President Nicolás Maduro for a third term, as announced at the end of January by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, in the middle of a parliamentary session.

Maduro, however, has not referred to that possibility in public.

On January 1, in an interview with 

, he said that it was “very premature” to decide whether or not he will be a candidate for re-election.

During the broadcast of his program “Con el mallet giving”, Cabello also reiterated that people disqualified from running for elected office will not be able to register in the race.

“Whoever for some reason is disqualified, when they try to get into the CNE system, the system will automatically reject them, witchcraft is no longer valid, it is worthless, it is an automated system,” he stated.

"The rest is to continue deceiving their people, anyone who wants to feel with some level of fictitious hope can have it, but the truth is clear."

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Cabello's comment seemed to point directly to opposition leader María Corina Machado, who on Tuesday, at a rally held in Mérida, in the Venezuelan Andes, said that the Government of Nicolás Maduro intends to “ignore the rights of Venezuelans,” while Also opposition member Juan Guaidó stated on his X account, formerly Twitter, that Machado will attend the CNE to register on March 21, the date on which the process is scheduled to open.

Machado and other political leaders are subject to an administrative sanction from the Comptroller General of the Republic for alleged inconsistencies in her sworn declaration of assets when she was a deputy to the National Assembly (2010-2015), in the case of Machado.

The Supreme Court of Justice ratified that ruling in January, but Machado has rejected that decision and continues to tour the country on the campaign trail.

Machado won the primary elections in October 2023 with more than 90% of the vote.

The holding of presidential elections in the second half of 2024 is part of the Barbados Accords that the Maduro Government and the opposition signed last October.