Venezuela: they denounce that the electoral system for candidate registration remains blocked

When there are a few hours left until the end of the registration period for nominations for the presidential elections on July 28 in Venezuelathe main opposition bloc denounced on Monday that it is still prevented from registering Corina Yoris, designated as a unitary candidate to replace Maria Corina Machadodisqualified from holding public office.

The opposition leader Delsa Solórzano confirmed that the website of the National Electoral Council (CNE) continues to block access to the electronic nomination system, which is why Yoris has not been able to be registered by the representatives of the political organizations Democratic Unity Table (MUD). ) and Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), the only ones authorized by the electoral authority to register candidates.

“We are still working to guarantee the political rights provided for in our Constitution. “This is unusual”Solórzano told The Associated Press.

The rest of the main opposition parties, whose historical leaders make up the so-called Democratic Unitary Platform—among them Acción Democrástica, Voluntad Popular and COPEI—are now led by opposition dissidents after the Supreme Court of Justice, which critics say is controlled by the government, gave them the address, symbols, colors and cards of those parties.

The Unitarian platform is the opposition bloc that has been holding talks with representatives of Nicolás Maduro’s government since 2021 and that signed the Barbados agreement in October.

The pact contemplated working on a plan that would generate equal political conditions to hold free and competitive presidential elections in 2024. The Platform has said that the Maduro administration and its allies have violated the spirit of that agreement.

The lifting of the different obstacles that the opposition faces to participate in the presidential elections depends largely on the will of the authorities, Solórzano highlighted. The Supreme Court of Justice, the Attorney General’s Office, the Comptroller General’s Office, the Ombudsman’s Office, the electoral authority, among other instances and organizations, are accused of being controlled by the government.

Machado on Friday named Yoris as his replacement, an 80-year-old retired academic and university professor, following increased government pressure against her candidacy following the arrests of part of her campaign team and her disqualification from holding public office for 15 years imposed on him in June by the Comptroller General of Venezuela, then headed by the current president of the CNE, Elvis Amoroso.

Machado last year overwhelmingly won a primary election held by an opposition faction, but in January the Supreme Court of Justice upheld an administrative order that disqualified the 56-year-old former legislator.

Despite the disqualification, Machado has not stopped touring the country to promote his candidacy and now promises to do the same in favor of Yoris.

In Venezuela, political disqualification is an accessory penalty that is applied when there is a final judicial ruling. Critics of the late former president Hugo Chávez and Maduro, among them Machado, denounce that disqualification has been used for years as a political weapon. There is no judicial sentence against the former legislator.

Machado reaction

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado warned this Monday that if the candidate who will compete against Chavismo in the presidential elections on July 28 “he chooses it” the Government of Nicolás Maduro, these cannot be considered elections.

In a brief message published on the social network “fight until we achieve clean and free elections with the candidate who has the trust of the people”.

“If the candidate is chosen by Maduro, they are not elections,” expressed the former liberal representative, winner of last October’s primaries, who gave up her candidacy to the historian Corina Yoris due to the disqualification that prevents her from competing for public office in these and other elections until 2036.