The National Constituent Assembly has approved the proposal made by Diosdado Cabello.
Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly, ANC, member Diosdado Cabello has proposed that presidential elections in the South American country be held before April 30.
"For the month of April, new presidential elections will be held in Venezuela," Cabello told the ANC.
The ANC has since approved his proposal.
The official also commented on recent sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on Venezuelan officials, affirming that "if the world wants to apply sanctions to us, we will apply elections."
He also indicated that the Venezuelan people "have the right to decide their destiny and we demand respect for all our decisions."
The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, known as PSUV, has not yet announced a presidential candidate. The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable coalition currently has two primary contenders: Henrique Capriles Radonski and Henry Ramos Allup.
"We have only one candidate to continue with the Bolivarian Revolution, together with a national project ... there is no problem with our candidate because we are going to win united, as a single unitary force to continue with (former President Hugo) Chavez's legacy," Cabello added.
After the proposal was accepted, the ANC urged the National Electoral Council, or CNE, to finalize the date of the elections.
After the announcement, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, assured that if the people and the socialist movements decide on it, he will place his candidacy in the presidential elections in their hands.
"I am a humble worker, a man of the people, if the Socialist Party, if the forces of the Great Patriotic Pole, if the working class, women, youth, believe that I should be the presidential candidate of the Fatherland, I am at their orders, " he said during a mobilization in Caracas to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the overthrow of the Marcos Pérez Jiménez dictatorship on January 23, 1958.
