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Prosecutors: Candidate in Venezuela assembly election shot dead

Sunday, 30 July 2017 1:47 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 30 July 2017 3:57 PM ]

This file photo shows assassinated candidate for Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly, Jose Felix Pineda (R), along with Diosdado Cabello, the former speaker of the National Assembly of Venezuela.

Venezuelan prosecutors say one of the candidates running in the country’s assembly election has been fatally shot by yet unknown gunmen.

According to Venezuelan prosecutors, the unknown assailants broke into the candidate’s home overnight in the southeastern city of Ciudad Bolivar and killed him by firing multiple shots.

The candidate, identified as 39-year-old Jose Felix Pineda, was to become part of the country’s Constituent Assembly, which is tasked with rewriting the constitution.

No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for Pineda's assassination and motivations behind the attack remain unknown.

The assassination came after Venezuelans started casting their ballot in a controversial election to elect the 545-seat Constituent Assembly.

Pineda was the second Venezuelan candidate to be murdered after Jose Luis Rivas was killed on July 10 when he was campaigning in the northern city of Maracay.

A man shows his identification card to an electoral official before casting his vote at a polling station during the Constituent Assembly election in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Polls opened in Venezuela on Sunday and eligible voters lined up to cast their ballot at polling stations across the oil-rich country.

Critics and the opponents of President Nicolas Maduro have boycotted the vote citing “rigged election” and arguing that the new legislative body will give the socialist leader a stranglehold on power and new powers to ruling Socialist Party officials.

On the eve of the election, however, anti-government demonstrators blocked roads in the capital in defiance of a ban on protest rallies, raising the prospect of violent clashes with security forces in coming days.

Voters are to choose 545 members of the assembly from over 6,100 candidates representing a broad array of Socialist Party allies, but none are from the opposition. The new assembly is scheduled to sit within 72 hours after results were officially certified.

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