The Venezuelan opposition buys time and opts for a provisional candidate to avoid abstention

Chavismo has granted the opposition some extra time.

The Unitary Platform has been able to point, even indirectly, a name among the candidates for the presidential elections of July 28 in which Venezuela plays one last card to achieve a political transition that will lead to a way out of the prolonged political crisis and institutional.

It is not the academic Corina Yoris, the standard-bearer of María Corina Machado, a candidate chosen in primaries, but who the Government of Nicolás Maduro has refused to let compete due to a disqualification confirmed by the Supreme Court.

The opposition has managed, however, to register the internationalist and career diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia with the aim of reserving the space on the card of the Democratic Unity Table (MUD), which kept his ballot, and then replace him when it has been agreed upon a unitary opposition candidacy.

02:19

Closing of registrations for presidential candidates in Venezuela

"Given the clear impossibility of registering the candidate chosen by democratic factors, in order to continue fighting for it and guarantee the registration of said candidacy and stay within the electoral route, we have decided to provisionally register the president of the Mesa de la Democratic Unit, citizen Edmundo González Urrutia, to preserve the exercise of the political rights that correspond to our political organization until we manage to register our unitary candidacy," the organization explained in a statement.

The decision seeks to conjure up the ghost of abstention that has previously worked in favor of Chavismo.

Given the international pressure generated by the veto imposed on Machado and his replacement, in addition to the judicial persecution against his team and the irregularities reported in the application process, Chavismo has also bought time with this concession.

According to the electoral calendar, until April 20, parties have the opportunity to make changes to their nominations.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) must also confirm the admission of the applicants and the legislation establishes that up to 10 days before the election the name of González Urrutia can be substituted although surely the photo of the new candidate would not, in that case, the one that appears on the voters' ballots.

But the periods and processes established by law have been the least important in this process.

The negotiations continue and the 13 candidacies that have managed to pass this first filter would not necessarily be the final ones, except, of course, for Maduro.

González, who was Venezuela's ambassador to Argentina and Algeria, will be, for now, what in Venezuelan electoral jargon is called a "tapa candidate", waiting for a negotiation to make way for Yoris or another name that meets the consensus of the Unitary Platform.

Everything must have, however, the approval of Chavismo, who is determined not to face any candidate with whom he could lose.

The last few hours have been disappointing for Machado, who insists on keeping Yoris as his option.

This is what she said in her first statements after the tense day of nominations in which Chavismo left her out, but, instead, allowed the registration of the candidacy of Manuel Rosales, who, in the first instance, supported him, in a movement that the leader of Vente, at least from her reaction, seems that she did not have in her calculations.

“These are very difficult hours.

There are deep disappointments.

There is a lot of anger, there is a lot of indignation, many people feel that they were mocked, that these actions of the last few hours ignore the mandate and the struggle of Venezuelans.

It should not be minimized, it should be assumed.

Only then do disappointments and betrayals become lessons to follow,” she said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The battle to enter the CNE digital form involves intense negotiation, which continued even after the official registration deadline.

Before the close of the day, 12 candidates managed to sneak in, including Nicolás Maduro, nine candidates from the sectors that have agreed to coexist with Chavismo without threatening their power — the so-called

scorpions

— and that of two moderate opponents such as Enrique Márquez, former rector of the CNE applied through the Centrados card and Manuel Rosales, with that of Un Nuevo Tiempo.

The party has acknowledged in a statement that it decided to nominate its main leader

in extremis

so as not to leave the opposition without options, given Chavismo's refusal to admit Yoris.

With these premises, the different candidacies can become a dividing factor for the opposition, now that the CNE itself has admitted a registration with the MUD card, the alliance with the most votes in electoral history, with which the opposition carved out one of his first victories in 2015, when he won the majority in Parliament.

Machado has spoken of betrayal when referring to the last-minute movements of Rosales, former presidential candidate, who abstained from participating in last October's primaries and publicly assured of maintaining his aspirations of reaching Miraflores.

“If the united opposition is not allowed to register its candidate, are these elections?

If the regime chooses the candidates, are these elections?” Machado has asked rhetorically.

The road to July 28 in Venezuela, however, will be full of unanswered questions and tensions like those of the last few hours.

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