Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who returned to Venezuela after nearly a year away, addresses the press in Caracas on Thursday | REUTERS

Venezuela’s acting president pledged to hold elections once the agency that oversees voting is overhauled, offering her most specific vision yet for restoring democracy even as the nation’s leading opposition figure pressed her to commit to a date next year.

The back-and-forth between the interim head of state Delcy Rodriguez and her challenger Maria Corina Machado in consecutive events was the closest thing to a direct confrontation the two have had since Machado returned from exile on Oct. 25.…