The signing of a pre-election agreement raised political tensions Tuesday between Acting President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles, two leading candidates in Venezuela's upcoming presidential election.
The pact, proposed Monday by Maduro, contains a commitment to respect the National Electoral Council (CNE) as an electoral umpire and to recognize the results of the election on April 14.
The agreement emulated a similar text signed by the two political blocs in dispute in July 2012, when Capriles competed for the presidency with late President Hugo Chavez.
"I will respect the results that the people decide on April 14," Maduro said during a ceremony with workers in Caracas, broadcast on state television VTV.
He reiterated that he has signed the document to ensure his commitment before the nation.
For his part, Capriles refused to sign the agreement before the CNE and instead signed another document during his campaign in eastern Venezuela, where he made the same promise and added a batch of 650 complaints of alleged irregularities during his rival's campaign.
The opposition candidate accused the CNE of being biased in favor of the ruling party's campaign and not regulating the use of state resources by Maduro, who became the country's acting president after the death of Chavez in March.
Capriles' document was later rejected by the CNE for not keeping the same format of the original agreement presented by Maduro.
On April 14, an estimated 18 million Venezuelan voters will go to polling stations nationwide to choose a new president for the South American nation.
