President Nicolás Maduro announced that 35,616 community projects have been registered for the Popular Consultation called for November 23. During the Plenary Session of the 5th PSUV Congress, he described this achievement as «a miracle» and «a beautiful testament» to the Venezuelan people:
«These are 35,616 projects created by the people, who is now planning, now the people is planning,» emphasized the head of state. He highlighted that the communities have worked with their Concrete Action Agendas (ACA), Dream Maps, and the 7Ts (7 Transformations), demonstrating an extraordinary capacity for popular organization.
The president emphasized the success of the free and massive nomination process carried out by the People’s Power: “Well, we can’t force people into a straitjacket, we must never do that,” he urged, acknowledging the effectiveness of this participatory mechanism.
Within the framework of this process, Maduro announced the goal of establishing 6,000 communes in the coming year. He instructed officials to work toward fulfilling this proposal, which will expand the rights of the people, qualifying Commander Chávez’s idea of communes as “wonderful.”
For the Popular Consultation on November 23, more than 8,500 polling centers have been selected by grassroots organizations. These spaces will allow communities to democratically choose the projects they consider most important for their development.
The president called for active involvement in the motivational campaign to guarantee massive participation. He invited the people to “exercise their sovereignty and exercise their right to vote” in this process that strengthens participatory and protagonistic democracy in Venezuela.