Venezuela's main opposition coalition unable to register a presidential candidate

Caracas (Venezuela), Mar 26 (AP) The main Venezuelan opposition coalition said early Tuesday that electoral authorities didn't let it register its presidential candidate as the deadline ended, in what it called the latest violation to the citizens' right to vote for change in the South American country.

The candidate, Corina Yoris, could not be registered by midnight Monday, which was the time limit for registering for the election set for July 28, said Omar Barboza, representative of the US-backed Unitary Platform coalition.

On a video posted on the Unitary Platform X account, Barboza said this was “a violation of the right of the majority of Venezuelans who want to vote for change,” and he demanded the registry be reopened.

Yoris, an 80-year-old unknown newcomer, was named Friday the substitute to opposition leader María Corina Machado, who faces a government ban on her running for office.

Hours before the opposition coalition couldn't register Yoris, President Nicolás Maduro got the support of thousands as he made official his candidacy for a third term that would last until 2031.

Polls show the unpopular Maduro would be trounced by a landslide if Venezuelan voters were given half a chance.

The self-proclaimed socialist leader has so far managed to block his chief opponents from running while alternately negotiating and then reneging on minimal electoral guarantees promised to the US government in exchange for relief from oil sanctions.

“We've exhausted all of the possibilities,” Yoris said Monday at a news conference in which she detailed her failed attempts to register, both electronically and in person, her candidacy. “It's not just the name of Corina Yoris that is being denied but the name of any citizen that wants to run.” In registering his own candidacy, Maduro, without mentioning Yoris by name, blasted his would-be rival as a “puppet” of traditional elites.

To date, 10 candidates have registered to compete in the July elections, none of them connected to the main opposition coalition and several seen as representing little threat to Maduro's power base. Once parties register their candidate, they have until April 16 to name a substitute. (AP) GRS GRS