VENEZUELA: Leading opposition parties will boycott December vote.

Leaders from the Justice First, Popular Will and Democratic Action parties say the electoral system is biased.

Julio Borges, the leader of the Justice First party and president of the National Assembly, said the government of Nicolás Maduro had rigged elections in 2013 and earlier this month.

President Maduro insists the Venezuelan system is entirely trustworthy.

The nationwide gubernatorial elections of two weeks ago may have been tainted with fraud and intimidation. And last week in the country’s western Zulia state where the opposition managed to score a win, the Maduro-friendly legislature removed the opposition governor. Governor Juan Pablo Guanipa’s crime? “He refused to swear loyalty to an all-powerful national legislative superbody aligned with President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling socialists.”