Carmen Meléndez is seeking reelection in the Libertador municipality of Caracas. (Ciudad CCS)
Caracas, July 14, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The campaign for Venezuela’s upcoming municipal elections officially launched Friday with marches and rallies across the country.
On July 27, Venezuelans will vote for 335 mayors and 2,471 municipal councilors for new four-year terms. Out of the latter, 1,420 will be picked from party lists and 982 as first-past-the-post candidates. Indigenous communities will appoint a further 69 representatives in accordance with their traditions.
According to electoral authorities, there are 21.6 million citizens eligible to participate in the contests. The ballot will feature 36 national parties and 10 regional ones.
The Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), bringing together the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) and 12 allied forces, kicked off the campaign with multiple marches on Friday as its leaders expressed optimism for the municipal races.
National Assembly President and GPP campaign chief Jorge Rodríguez forecast a “short and intense” campaign, with candidates slated for multiple daily activities with local communities.
“We are deploying across the national territory and we are going to fight for these 335 municipalities,” Rodríguez said in a Friday press conference. “We have to go door-to-door with our proposals and projects.”
Carmen Meléndez, who is running for a new term in the Libertador municipality in Caracas, opened her reelection bid with a rally in the working-class 23 de Enero neighborhood.
“We are addressing problems by listening and working with the people,” the mayor told supporters. “We are following President Maduro’s instruction to spend less time in our offices and more on the streets.”
Meléndez’s campaign is focused on continuing to work alongside communities and, in particular advancing ‘Operation Caracas Smiles’ in order to progressively rehabilitate areas of the capital.
Analysts predict that anti-government parties are likely to lose many of the more than 100 municipalities they won in the 2021 elections. US-backed far-right forces led by María Corina Machado continue to call for a boycott of electoral events in a bid to drive up abstention.
Internal splits have likewise hampered center-right and right-wing parties and coalitions. The Democratic Alliance, a coalition of parties that broke with US-backed hardliners in 2019, recently dissolved due to disagreements over municipal lists and candidates.
In the Libertador municipality, which makes up the heart of the Venezuelan capital, several opposition groups have rallied to support 26-year-old Jorge Barragán from Alianza del Lápiz, a newer opposition party that is not aligned with any of the other coalitions. Lapiz founder Antonio Ecarri came second to Meléndez in the 2021 municipal race. Barragán’s campaign pitch is centered on lowering taxes, attracting investment and providing education opportunities so children can “become entrepreneurs.”
The Fuerza Vecinal party has set a priority of retaining the East Caracas middle- and upper-class municipalities of Chacao, Baruta and El Hatillo, which have never been won by Chavismo. Chacao mayor Gustavo Duque vowed to “rout” his GPP challenger and win reelection.
Anti-government forces are also betting strongly on Henri Falcón in the Iribarren municipality in Barquisimeto, Lara state. Falcón, who belonged to the Socialist Party before breaking ranks in 2010, served two terms as Iribarren mayor (2000-2008) and two terms as Lara governor (2009-2017).
The veteran politician, who was defeated by Maduro in the 2018 presidential race, is the main challenger against the PSUV’s Yanis Agüero. The ruling coalition’s candidate selection was marred by controversy in Iribarren, with some activists claiming that incumbent Luis Jonás Reyes had been the most popular choice in grassroots assemblies over Agüero.
The municipal vote comes on the heels of the May 25 legislative and regional contests. Electoral authorities reported a turnout of around 28 percent as the pro-government coalition renewed its legislative majority and secured 23 out of 24 governor posts.
July 27 will also see Venezuelans vote on local state-funded projects. The third National Popular Consultation of 2025 is focusing on youth initiatives, with proposals coming from committees of people aged between 15 and 35 in local territories.
The local project selection is taking place alongside the municipal contests, and will be held with paper ballots. The winning initiatives will receive US $10,000 of state funding. Local organized communities will be tasked with executing the projects and rendering accounts.
Edited by José Luis Granados Ceja from Mexico City, Mexico.
