Rosales, The Opponent Allowed To Challenge Venezuela's Maduro

Veteran politician Manuel Rosales was not the Venezuelan opposition's first or even second choice candidate to field against President Nicolas Maduro in July's election, but he's the only one who appears to have broken through a tightly controlled nomination system

Caracas, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2024) Veteran politician Manuel Rosales was not the Venezuelan opposition's first or even second choice candidate to field against President Nicolas Maduro in July's election, but he's the only one who appears to have broken through a tightly controlled nomination system.

Indeed, Rosales is seen as a more palatable opposition figure for Maduro's socialist government as it seeks to maintain its grip on power, backing away from a high profile pledge last year to allow free elections in 2024.

The main opposition candidate has been barred by courts loyal to Maduro.

The candidacy of Rosales, the governor of the oil-rich state of Zulia, was announced early Tuesday, moments after the main opposition coalition said it had not managed to access the registration website before the midnight deadline.

His party, Un Nuevo Tiempo, nominated him, according to the National Electoral Council.

His candidacy was separate from the coalition Democratic Unitary Platform's (PUD) nomination bid, although his party is a member.

The PUD was planning to put forward university professor Corina Yoris as a stand-in for disqualified opposition figurehead Maria Corina Machado.

While Machado had overwhelming won the opposition Primary last year, courts loyal to Maduro have banned her from holding public office for 15 years.

Neither the PUD nor Machado have yet commented on Rosales' eleventh-hour candidacy.

But securing Machado's backing will be vital if he intends to unite a fragmented opposition, including her broad, anti-Chavez camp.

Analysts suggest Rosales, 71, appears to have been accepted by the ruling party as a more tolerable opponent to Maduro's bid for a third six-year term.

In the opposition camp however, he has proved a somewhat divisive figure for having maintained ties with Maduro since resuming the Zulia governorship in 2021.

"He has proven to be a very pragmatic man, who knows how to adapt to the circumstances and is never reluctant to negotiate," political analyst Maria Alexandra Semprun told AFP.

Rosales ran in the 2006 presidential election, when he was soundly defeated by socialist Hugo Chavez, who was at the height of his popularity at the time.

Previously, Rosales had served as mayor of the Zulia state capital, Maracaibo, the country's second-biggest city, between 1996 and 2000 and then again from 2008 to 2009. In between those two posts he served as Zulia state governor.

In 2009, Rosales went into exile, accused of corruption. At that time Chavez was threatening to jail him and end his political career, alleging that Rosales was conspiring against him.

After six years in exile in Peru, he was arrested upon his return to Venezuela in October 2015.

Two years later, his ineligibility over the corruption charge was lifted and he was able to run for office again.