1st LD Writethru: Venezuelan president says willing to run for reelection

CARACAS, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday said he was willing to run for reelection in a poll that has been moved forward by at least eight months.

Earlier in the day, Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly (ANC) unanimously voted to move up presidential elections to sometime before the April 30 deadline.

Maduro said if the country's progressive forces backed him as their candidate, he would stand for a second term.

"If Venezuela's United Socialist Party (PSUV), if the forces of the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), if my fellow laborers, if the working class, if women, if the youth believe that I should be the presidential candidate... I am at the service of the presidential candidacy," said Maduro.

During a regularly scheduled session, lawmakers agreed to "undertake Venezuela's presidential election process in the first four months of 2018," said ANC member Diosdado Cabello, who presented the motion to the assembly.

Elections were set to take place in December 2018, but the ruling socialist party feared that external support for the right-wing opposition coalition could over the coming months strengthen the anti-government movement. Enditem