Opposition Coalition Succeeds in Registering Candidate for Venezuelan Elections

Opposition coalition succeeds in registering candidate for Venezuelan elections. The Unitary Democratic Platform (PUD), the broadest opposition group led by Maria Corina Machado, obtains the registration of a “provisional” candidate. Late yesterday, Tuesday, March 26, the Venezuelan electoral body informed that it had registered Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the candidate of this group for the presidential elections of next July 28.

After the refusal to register Maria Corina Machado, the initial candidate, and Corina Yoris, the PUD had been left without a candidate to run in the elections to elect the president of Venezuela until 2031. The electoral entity had informed that a total of twelve candidacies had been registered for these elections, among which stand out the historic opposition leaders Manuel Rosales and Enrique Marquez, both from the Nuevo Tiempo party.

However, the opposition candidacy which has achieved more consensus and to which all analysts agree in giving more possibilities to confront the ruling party, the PUD, had been left out when Corina Yoris was not accepted due to “technical problems”.

International pressure

This situation provoked a torrent of international criticism, including from countries such as Colombia and Brazil, with leftist governments, which questioned the transparency of the elections if the PUD was not offered the possibility of running with its own candidate.

In the afternoon, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Colombia and Venezuela engaged in a dialectic confrontation, through two communiqués in their social networks. Brazil was also very critical of the situation. Thanks to these pressures, Venezuela offered an extension of twelve hours, which was taken advantage of by the opposition to search against the clock for a candidate of circumstances to, at least, have their participation in the presidential elections registered.

“We have decided to register, provisionally, the president of the board of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática party, citizen Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, in order to preserve the exercise of the political rights that correspond to our political organization until we manage to register our unitary candidacy”, said the communiqué of this opposition collectivity.

It is worth highlighting the “provisional” category of the candidate, since the opposition intends to gain time in this way, after the systematic boycott that the electoral authority, controlled by the Executive power, has exercised against them. Gonzalez Urrutia may be replaced as from April 1 and for a period of fifteen days, provided that he does not have any sanction and the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE), the entity which governs the elections and which is controlled by the government of Maduro, admits him.

Chaotic registration process

The process for the registration of candidates has been chaotic. The controversy had been dragging on for months, when the Venezuelan justice confirmed the disqualification of the candidate Maria Corina Machado, elected with a very wide support by the opposition coalition to face Nicolas Maduro in the elections.

Subsequently, the party agreed to present a second candidacy. For this purpose, it chose an 80 year old veteran academic, Corina Yoris, with no political experience and without any disqualification or electoral sanction. However, the process closed on Monday night, March 25, without the registration of Yoris. The electoral authority alleged technical problems to carry out such registration, in an evident act of sabotage of the candidacy sponsored by Machado.

At that time, the two opposition candidates with more options were Luis Rosales and Enrique Marquez, both from the Nuevo Tiempo party, but Machado and her coalition quickly denied supporting any of those candidacies. In fact, in a communiqué issued in the afternoon, the coalition assured that “we continue our struggle tirelessly in defense of the Venezuelan people’s right to elect and to achieve free, competitive and fair elections”.

Finally, under international pressure, Venezuela accepted a third proposal from the PUD, registering Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a diplomat practically unknown in the Venezuelan political scene.

“From the Unitary Democratic Platform, we express our deepest gratitude to the international community and especially to the foreign ministries of Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Brazil, as well as the governments of the United States and the European Union for their support to the struggle of the Venezuelan people who want fair and free elections in our country”, thanked the PUD in a statement late yesterday.

Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia

Gonzalez Urrutia is a 74-year-old Venezuelan political analyst and diplomat. He was Venezuela’s ambassador to Argentina and Algeria in the 1990s. Of low profile, the current candidate held the position of international liaison coordinator of the opposition PUD eleven years ago.

In his professional life, his dedication as a professor, expert in international politics and analyst of the Venezuelan reality stands out. Edmundo Gonzalez is considered a bridge man, chosen to assure the legal registration of the opposition coalition’s candidacy, but the idea is that he will be replaced in the next weeks by another person.

The challenge for Maria Corina Machado’s coalition will be for the electoral authority to accept the name of the definitive candidate, after rejecting the first two chosen persons. In an evident mockery of the Barbados agreements, which in October last year the Venezuelan government signed with the opposition, to offer electoral guarantees and ensure the political rights of the opposition, the government of Nicolas Maduro maneuvers to sabotage the options of a candidacy that could put an end to 26 years of Chavista government.

The Venezuelan president has a high rate of disapproval, and his electoral options do not guarantee a victory next July 28 in a free contest and with all the guarantees for the opposition options. In less than fifteen days the candidacies must be confirmed and it remains to be seen if the PUD will be able to position a name capable of achieving the consensus that Maria Corina Machado achieved five months ago.