Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds up a book featuring his photo with the Spanish title: "2025 - 2031. Plan of the Homeland. Big Transformations" as he speaks at the National Election Commission where he arrived to formalize his candidacy to run again for president in Caracas, Venezuela, March 25, 2024. Elections are set for July 28, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday registered at the National Electoral Council as a candidate for the presidential elections on July 28.

"Today I have come to not only register my name, but to register a dream of a nation," Maduro, the candidate of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, said at the CNE's headquarters.

He (Maduro) criticized opposition leaders who "have never had a national plan for the country," saying "what they have are personal ambitions" to hand over the country to the United States

Accompanied by his cabinet and supporters, Maduro invited his followers "to continue dreaming and to continue transforming our reality forward, towards the future".

Presenting his national plan to the electoral body, the president said that it was drafted following more than 63,000 street assemblies with the grassroots.

He criticized opposition leaders who "have never had a national plan for the country," saying "what they have are personal ambitions" to hand over the country to the United States.