Venezuelan Opposition Registers Unknown Poll Contender After Obstacles

Venezuela's main opposition coalition said Tuesday it had managed to register a proxy candidate to face off against President Nicolas Maduro in the country's July elections -- but not the one it wanted

Caracas, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2024) Venezuela's main opposition coalition said Tuesday it had managed to register a proxy candidate to face off against President Nicolas Maduro in the country's July elections -- but not the one it wanted.

With popular leader Maria Corina Machado banned from public office, the plan had been to register another stand-in candidate, 80-year-old university professor Corina Yoris. But the coalition found itself blocked from doing so by the time the deadline struck at midnight on Monday.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) on Tuesday released the surprise name of Edmundo Gonzalez Urruti, a political scientist and former ambassador, as the candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD).

The coalition said in a statement that his candidacy was "provisional ... given the clear impossibility of registering the chosen candidate so far."

The United States and Brazil were among several nations that expressed alarm after the coalition was unable to register Yoris.

- Regime 'chose' candidates -

Maduro, 61, is seeking to extend his turbulent decade in power with a third six-year term, amid rising concerns over his slide into authoritarianism and crackdown on dissent.

"What we warned about for many months ended up happening: the regime chose its (opposition) candidates," Machado told a press conference.

While Machado overwhelmingly won an opposition Primary last year, courts loyal to Maduro banned her from holding public office for 15 years on charges of corruption widely dismissed as spurious, and for supporting Western sanctions against the government.

Another opposition figure, the veteran politician Manuel Rosales, also managed to register. He is seen as a more palatable opponent by Maduro's socialist government.

Rosales, of the Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) party, said he had made the decision to register himself as a candidate to "open a space for Venezuelans to vote."

He said the alternative was "to abstain and have (President Nicolas) Maduro stay there for six more years without doing anything else."