First, it was María Corina Machado, a well-liked former legislator. It was imagined to be Corina Yoris, a little-known professor of philosophy. Now the opposition coalition has fielded former diplomat Edmundo González because the third candidate to run against President Nicolás Maduro in elections scheduled for July.
That is, no less than for now.
A coalition of opposing political parties, the Round Table of Democratic Unity, has been hoping for months to unite around one candidate who might be an actual rival to Maduro.
But because the rapidly changing list of potential candidates makes clear, Maduro’s government is erecting a series of obstacles to stop this goal from being achieved.
On Monday, the state electoral commission controlled by Mr. Maduro’s allies used a technical maneuver to stop the coalition from placing Ms. Yoris on the ballot. It was the last day for presidential candidates to register for the July ballot, and efforts to field a unified candidate appeared to have failed.
Then on Tuesday afternoon, the coalition announced on the X social media platform that the electoral body had granted it an extension and that it had “decided to provisionally register” Mr. González, whom it identified as chairman of the Round Table of Democratic Unity’s board of directors.
Putting Mr. González on the ballot, the opposition in the
“This opens the door for the rest of the opposition to have a stronger starting point to negotiate what happens,” said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, who studies Venezuela for the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. “Overall, it’s good news.”
The interim candidacy of Mr. González – who could only function a placeholder, with parties capable of rotate alternative candidates over the subsequent few weeks – was just the newest in a series of whiplash-inducing developments over who would run against Mr. Maduro in the July vote.
Last week, the Round Table of Democratic Unity announced it had agreed to run 80-year-old Yoris against Mr. Maduro in a show of unity after the country’s highest court banned Ms. Machado from the vote in January; the previous lawmaker was widely considered a big threat to Maduro.
Ms. Yoris’s name briefly raised hopes that free and fair elections could be possible. However, because the week progressed, Ms Yoris found she was unable to access the digital platform arrange by the country’s electoral authorities to register as a candidate.
Each authorized political organization in Venezuela receives a code to access the electoral platform. However, each Ms. Yoris’ party, New Era, and the Democratic Unity Round Table coalition said their codes didn’t work, stopping them from registering Ms. Yoris.
“We have exhausted all options,” Ms. Yoris said at a news conference on Monday morning. “The whole country will have no choice if I can’t register.”
As the day wore on, there was confusion amid signs that behind the scenes the federal government was attempting to shift the levers of power and secure a electoral field that may give Maduro a greater probability of victory.
Minutes before the registration deadline, the New Era party was inexplicably allowed to register one other candidate: Manuel Rosales, the party’s founder and governor of the populous state of Zulia, whose entry into the race was seen by political analysts as sealed by Mr. Maduro.
Rosales, in a speech on Tuesday before Mr. González’s registration was announced, said he intended to run a rigorous campaign, promising to “lead the greatest rebellion of votes that has ever existed.”
Two other candidates registered on Monday, bringing the full variety of candidates running to 13, including Maduro. Most of them consider themselves near the president, and none of them are considered a serious challenger.
“There is no doubt that Maduro wants to choose who to run against and is afraid to run against anyone who poses a threat to him,” Taraciuk Broner said.
It was unclear Tuesday why the federal government allowed González to register and what which may mean for Rosales’ candidacy.
According to Rafael Uzcátegui, a sociologist and director of the Peace Laboratory, a human rights organization, the persistent confusion over who can and can’t run is a deliberate tactic by the Maduro administration to sow distrust among the many electorate and divide votes based in Caracas.
In October, Maduro signed an agreement with the country’s opposition and agreed to work without spending a dime and fair presidential elections. Maduro has said he’ll hold elections before the tip of this 12 months, and in exchange, the United States has lifted some economic sanctions as an indication of goodwill.
Days later, Ms. Machado won greater than 90 percent of the vote to elect the opposition candidate in a primary election conducted by a commission without government involvement. The decisive results underscored her popularity and increased her possibilities of defeating Maduro in the overall election.
Three months later, the country’s highest court, filled with government supporters, found Ms. Machado ineligible to prosecute financial irregularities that judges said occurred while she was a national legislator.
Six of Ms. Machado’s campaign associates have been arrested in recent weeks, and 6 more have arrest warrants and are on the run. Men on motorcycles attacked fans during its events.
The government doesn’t comment on the opposition’s efforts to register.
The country’s vp, Delcy Rodríguez announced on Sunday, X the creation of a state commission for the fight against fascism, which might take care of threats from “centers of power in the service of the global North.”
Unclassified US intelligence report in February stated that Maduro has a great probability of winning the elections and staying in power “due to his control over state institutions influencing the electoral process and his desire to exercise power.”
While the Maduro administration has placed allies on the electoral council, the intelligence report said the council can be “trying to avoid blatant voting fraud.”
After registering to vote on Monday, Mr. Maduro claimed without evidence that two members of Ms. Machado’s party tried to kill him that afternoon during a march celebrating his registration. The Come Venezuela party denies this.
In his remarks, he criticized members of the opposition, calling them “locals of the right.”
“They dedicated themselves to demanding sanctions against society and the economy, demanding a blockade and an invasion of their own country,” he said. “They don’t think for themselves; they don’t work for themselves. They are pawns in the American empire’s game to take over Venezuela.”
“On July 28,” he added, turning to the opposition, “elections will be held with or without you.”
