Chavismo prevents the registration of Corina Yoris, the replacement of María Corina Machado, due to “a failure of the system”

Chavismo is not allowing Corina Yoris to register as a candidate for the presidential elections this Monday, according to the opposition.

The 80-year-old academic appears on behalf of María Corina Machado, the opponent with great political capital who represents a real threat to the continuity in power of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

The trick to prevent the candidacy of Yoris, a university professor who can hardly be disqualified as she has not held any political or public office, has been to block the website and cut off access to the building located in the center of Caracas with the presence of the military. National Electoral Center (CNE).

“My rights as a Venezuelan citizen are being violated by not allowing me to access the system and register my candidacy for the Presidency of Venezuela,” Yoris said at a press conference.

The opponents, in any case, do not give up their efforts and will try to register until midnight, when the deadline ends.

The CNE, controlled by the ruling party, has only allowed candidates to register, all men, who do not represent any risk to the perpetuation of Chavismo in power.

Maduro 's

, the president of the Assembly Jorge Rodríguez, had made the White House and the opposition, with whom he reached an agreement in Barbados, believe in the last year that he would not oppose the candidacy in the elections of politicians who were not disqualified.

However, seeing its permanence in the Government in danger, the Chavista leadership has resorted to all kinds of tricks to not let Yoris compete, whom it is impossible to veto because she has an impeccable resume about which there is no if or but.

The dream of free presidential elections that would give way to a democratic transition is disappearing like smoke in the wind.

Right now there are ten candidates registered, including Maduro.

The CNE is chaired by Elvis Amoroso, a personal friend of the president and also of Cilia Flores, the first lady.

“At this moment I represent the political unity of the country, which I believe has not been seen in a long time, as I have never said, in the way we have seen the represented unity and the Venezuelan political forces.

It is not only the rights of Corina Yoris that are being violated, but also the rights of the political parties to offer a candidacy that represents that unity.

And it is also denying the rights of Venezuelans to be and nominate and elect the candidate they want to elect,” continued the candidate, surrounded by opponents.

She can present herself with the MUD and UNT cards, which had previously been validated, but the mysterious failure in the system prevents this for now.

The opponents tried to approach the CNE headquarters, but they did not succeed, it is impossible to get there.

A deployment of police and military prevents this.

In theory, his presence serves to ensure the safety of Maduro - who lives obsessed with the possibility of an assassination - who is going to go this Monday to formalize his registration, approved unanimously at a congress of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

It is expected that he will not have any problem with his candidacy.

The opponents who have supported Machado and her decision to give up her position to Yoris - a coup that Chavismo did not expect - have tried without success to ask for an extension, at least at this time.

Nobody from the CNE has attended to them.

“It is not the name of Corina Yoris that is being denied, it is the name of any citizen who wants to run because access is prevented,” said Machado's replacement.

Chavismo seems to bar the doors to any candidacy that comes from it, which in opposition primaries obtained more than 2,000,000 votes, causing queues at the polling stations.

The mobilization scared Chavismo, which tried to respond with a referendum on Essequibo - a territory that belongs to Guyana that was stolen from it during the times of the British colony - and it was a failure.

There is not a single photo from that day that shows that people were interested in the issue and came out to vote.

Of the registered candidates, for now only Antonio Ecarri, from the Alianza del Lápiz party, has spoken.

He often receives criticism for equating the opposition and the Chavista government (“Venezuela must overcome the dictatorship of both sides,” he wrote the other day on social networks).

He is clear that there is no possibility of the majority opposition registering.

“They will let anything that comes from Machado pass.

There are many years of very serious confrontations and very deep wounds.

“I reject any disqualification no matter where it comes from,” he responds via WhatsApp.

There is a possibility that those anti-Chavistas who are the majority would support any of those registered, which would put Maduro in serious trouble, who for now has assured that he will allow the presence of international observers on the day of the vote.

However, this opposition faction considers that those endorsed by Chavismo are

, a term to designate politicians who they believe are actually nothing more than satellites of the ruling party.

In any case, there are a few hours left until registration closes and there will surely be sabotage and reports of attacks against democracy.

Venezuelan political life, a perpetual bonfire.

Follow all the information from El PAÍS América on