Sawt Falasteen - Maduro vows to 'respect' July vote as pre-election arrests mount

On the same day, Gonzalez Urrutia's Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) coalition announced that a mayor had been arrested after expressing support for the opposition candidate, the latest of dozens of critics, dissidents and rivals rounded up by the state apparatus.

In the capital Caracas, electoral council (CNE) head Elvis Amoroso, a regime ally, read out an agreement detailing "the absolute will to recognize the results" of the July 28 vote, in which Maduro will seek re-election to a third term.

It was then signed by Maduro and eight candidates who are nominally of the opposition but accused by critics of being "collaborators" of the regime.

Urrutia did not attend the event, saying he had received no invitation, and adding in a statement that the so-called agreement was being "imposed unilaterally by the CNE."

Gonzalez Urrutia is representing the PUD at the ballot box after authorities loyal to Maduro disqualified Maria Corina Machado, who had overwhelmingly won an opposition primary last year.

The opposition has denounced the arrests of nearly 40 political and social activists so far this year.

On Thursday, the PUD said Yonnhy Liscano, mayor of the municipality of Ayacucho in the country's west, was detained after expressing his support for Gonzalez Urrutia.

In April, the rights group Foro Penal warned of a "significant intensification of... persecution" in Venezuela ahead of the presidential and municipal vote.

A recent count by the NGO Foro Penal said there were 278 "political prisoners" in Venezuela.

The government, which has not commented on claims of arbitrary arrests, accuses the opposition of conspiring against Maduro.

Amoroso on Thursday reiterated the government would not re-issue an invitation it had withdrawn to the European Union to send election observers, unless sanctions targeting top Venezuelan officials are cancelled.

T.Khatib--SF-PST