Chavismo blocks the nomination of the opposition candidate and a former rival of Hugo Chávez will face Maduro in the elections

A former rival of Hugo Chávez signed up around midnight on Monday, just before nominations closed, to face President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela’s elections, after the main opposition coalition denounced that he was prevented from presenting his candidate.

Named Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), one of the political parties that make up the opposition coalition United Platform Manuel Rosales as a candidate in the presidential elections on July 28, confirmed the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso. “They did it by automated means,” he explained.

It happened shortly after the United Democratic Platform (PUD), the main opposition coalition in Venezuela, announced in the early hours of this Tuesday that it could not nominate Corina Yoris in the elections.

“Nicolás Maduro did not allow the submission of the unitary candidacy. We were never allowed access to the candidacy system,” the PUD said in a message published on the social network X after midnight, at the end of the registration period.

At the same time, asked that the deadline for appointing Yoris be reinstatedchosen as presidential candidate by the PUD last Friday due to the disqualification that prevents former congresswoman María Corina Machado, winner of last October’s primaries, from competing for public office in these and other elections until 2036.

Since the nomination process began last Thursday, The PUD reported that it was blocked from accessing the system established by the CNE.

On the last day of candidate registration, the coalition declared that it had exhausted all avenues to register its candidate, despite having proposed one person whose There is no forfeiture or administrative sanction.

“We have exhausted all means at our disposal so that this problem can be solved,” Yoris said at a press conference Monday morning.

They ask to extend the deadline

On Sunday, the PUD asked the National Electoral Council (CNE) to extend the deadline for nominating candidates by three days, in order to “correct the violations of fact and law that occurred in the process”.

Amid this climate of tension, his opponent Rosales, 71, filed his candidacy for the presidential elections at the last minute. The governor of Zulia, an oil state on the western border with Colombia, has already done so He faced the late Hugo Chávez in the 2006 presidential election.when the socialist leader was at the height of his popularity.

A few minutes before knowing your registration, the Unitary Platform He reported that he had “never” accessed the system of applications on a CNE web platform since the process opened last Thursday.

Maduro, who aspires to a third mandate which will take him to power for 18 years, had already expressed his aspiration with great fanfare and without any restrictions.

The United Platform had foreseen the registration of Corina Yoris, nominated to take the place of María Corina Machado, who last year had won the primaries of this alliance of parties.

Machado was the favorite in the polls but was banned from holding public office for 15 years.

“We inform the national and world public opinion that we have worked around the clock, gathered in permanent session, to try to exercise our constitutional right to nominate our candidate and it was not possible. They did not allow us to access the nomination system “leader Omar Barboza said in a video released by the coalition.

Neither Machado nor the United Platform commented on the governor’s appointment.

On the verge of quitting, former electoral rector and former opposition parliamentarian Enrique Márquez presented his candidacy as “independent”.

“My candidacy has nothing to do, for now, with the support of any party of the so-called United Platform”, clarified Márquez, who belonged to the old Democratic Unity Table, replaced by the PUD, but who later created its own political party. . . “This is autonomous, I am an independent politician.”

Nicolas Maduro, competing

Maduro arrived at the CNE in a red SUV, accompanied by thousands of militants summoned by the ruling Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), carrying a poster with a charcoal illustration of the faces of independence hero Simón Bolívar and Chávez.

Another dozen groups linked to Chavismo had formalized their support for the president.

“I swear to you (…), on July 28, the 70th birthday of Commander Chávez, we will beat them again,” the president said to the crowd on a platform near the electoral body after making his aspiration official.

Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay expressed in a joint statement “their concern about the impediment to the registration” of the opposition.

Political scientist Jorge Morán told AFP that by blocking the United Platform, Chavismo was trying to repeat the scenario of 2018, when the bulk of the opposition boycotted the presidential elections, calling for abstention and denouncing fraud.

Nine candidates who presented themselves as opponents also ran, but in some cases were labeled “scorpions”, a term used in Venezuela to designate “collaborators” of the Chavista government.

The CNE now has the final say after the appeals have expired. He must approve the applications and Amoroso announced that he will be informed on Tuesday of the successful aspirations.

Maduro reported that two armed men he had linked to Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, were arrested after infiltrating the Chavismo rally with the plan to assassinate him; what that group described as “unfounded accusations.” The prosecution announced that they will be charged with terrorism and attempted murder.

Seven party leaders were arrested in recent days the Public Prosecutor has issued arrest warrants against seven others.

Source: AFP