In Venezuela, the deadline for registering candidates for the presidential election ended Monday, March 26, at midnight. A total of twelve candidates – all men – have registered for the July 28 election, including the head of state, Nicolas Maduro, who will seek a third term. The Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), which brings together the main opposition parties, was unable to register its candidate, Corina Yoris, with the National Electoral Council (CNE). She therefore finds herself officially ousted from the electoral game.
But, at 11:58 p.m., at the end of a day marked by numerous rumors, the CNE created a surprise by announcing that Manuel Rosales had just registered his candidacy for the opposition party Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), member of the unitary coalition. Governor of the state of Zulia, already a presidential candidate in 2006, Mr. Rosales, 71, is one of the recognized figures of the centrist opposition. The question arises as to whether he is supported by the entire PUD or whether his appointment has fractured the coalition.
In the afternoon, hundreds of activists from the United Socialist Party (PSUV) gathered in front of the CNE to cheer Mr. Maduro, who had come to submit his candidacy with Diosdado Cabello, the powerful vice-president of the party. “I did not come to write my name, but the dream of a homeland. I came to invite you to dream”said the head of state to his supporters. “On July 28, there will be elections with or without you”, he then added to the opposition. Without naming Mme Yoris, he called his possible opponent a “puppet” at the service of traditional elites.
Hugo Chavez omnipresent
Candidate for re-election in a country exhausted by a decade of recession, mismanagement, massive emigration and American sanctions, Nicolas Maduro poses as a continuation of the Bolivarian revolution, launched by the charismatic and still omnipresent in official speeches Hugo Chavez . The presidential vote was set for July 28, the anniversary of the birth of the former leader, who died in March 2013.
Throughout the day, television presenters praised the democratic health of the country, emphasizing that this election is on the 31ste organized in a quarter of a century and the opposition was able to register more than eleven candidates. In the opinion of analysts – who spoke before the announcement of Manuel Rosales’ candidacy – none of the “small candidates” registered has the means to seriously threaten Mr. Maduro. For the PUD, they are just pawns of power.
You have 45.25% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.