CARACAS, Feb 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Venezuela, still reeling from President Nicolas Maduro's disputed victory in elections last July, on Wednesday postponed a legislative vote that the opposition vowed to boycott.

The CNE electoral authority said elections for members of parliament and governors, initially scheduled for April 27, will be delayed to May 25.

The move, it said, was to "facilitate and promote the participation of different actors" in the process.

But opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who with much of the international community accuses Maduro of stealing last year's presidential election, said there was no point in holding a new vote.

"The people decided on July 28 and that MUST BE RESPECTED," she wrote on X from hiding, once again claiming victory for opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

"To participate in the farce imposed by Maduro is to disregard the mandate" that voters had given the opposition, she said.

Gonzalez Urrutia, for his part, said holding new elections is "unviable" and "contradicts the mandate expressed by Venezuelans at the polls" last year.

He went into exile after a warrant was issued for his arrest in the aftermath of Maduro's victory claim, which sparked protests in which 28 people were killed, 200 wounded and more than 2,400 arrested.

Maduro has been in power since 2013, when he succeeded his firebrand mentor, the late Hugo Chavez.

His first reelection in 2018 was also marred by fraud allegations but he resisted international pressure and crippling US sanctions aimed at forcing him to step aside.

The CNE once again proclaimed him victorious in July 2024, without ever providing a detailed breakdown of the vote.