Last Shot For Venezuela Opposition To Register Presidential Candidate

Venezuela's embattled opposition faces a last-ditch bid to register a candidate for July's presidential election on Monday, after accusing President Nicolas Maduro's government of blocking yet another aspirant

Caracas, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Mar, 2024) Venezuela's embattled opposition faces a last-ditch bid to register a candidate for July's presidential election on Monday, after accusing President Nicolas Maduro's government of blocking yet another aspirant.

As the deadline to register expires on Monday, Maduro, 61, will officially file his own candidacy for a third term to great fanfare, with thousands of supporters expected to rally behind him.

Venezuela goes to the polls on July 28 after a grim decade under Maduro's rule, marked by economic collapse that has pushed millions to flee the country.

Maduro, who was the handpicked successor of revolutionary mentor Hugo Chavez, is accused by rights groups of sliding into full-blown authoritarianism and clamping down on dissent.

"Whatever they do, whatever they say, they could not and will never be able to beat us," Maduro said last week, referring to the opposition and his perceived enemies.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, 56, won a Primary vote last year hands down, and some opinion surveys put her support at about 72 percent.

However, she was banned from public office for 15 years by courts loyal to Maduro on charges of corruption widely dismissed as spurious, and for supporting Western sanctions against the government.

Machado has nevertheless kept campaigning, and on Friday, she tapped an 80-year-old university professor, Corina Yoris, as her stand-in.