President Maduro renews call for dialogue with opposition in Venezuela

Venezuelan President NicolasMaduroreiterated his call for political

dialogue with the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) on

Sunday.

This came on the day his government held a practice vote ahead of the

July 30 election for the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) while the

MUD held an unofficial referendum to allow the Venezuelan people to

express their support or rejection for the ANC.

"They (MUD) have a quiet consultation today (...) I tell them not to

go crazy, we make a call for them to return to peace, to sit down and

talk, to begin a new cycle of dialogue for peace," said Maduro during a

telephone interview with the state-owned Venezolana de Televisión.

He called on the opposition to recover "a democratic character" and

"isolate" the sectors that Maduro blames for violent protests.

"We must be aware of the differences we have in the country, we must

resolve them with peace, with votes and not bullets, with tolerance,

with democracy," continued Maduro.

Maduro dismissed the referendum by the MUD as having seen little

participation but claimed the simulation of the ANC vote as having seen

"very big" participation, larger than any election for 18 years.

His call for peace may have been affected by the death of a woman, Xiomara Scott, 61, at a voting center for the MUD referendum.

Late Sunday, the prosecutor-general issued a statement stating that a

shooting at the town of Catia, west of Caracas, had killed Scott and

three others outside a voting center.

However, MUD representatives quickly attributed the attack on "armed groups" linked to the government.

The vice-president of the National Assembly, MUD member Freddy

Guevara, sent a letter to Maduro and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino

Lopez, in which he claimed the army was responsible.

Scott's death brings the total number of people killed since anti-government protests broke out in early April to 95.