MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuelan opposition unable to enter Yoris' candidacy before deadline

Venezuelan opposition unable to enter Yoris' candidacy before deadline

Venezuela's main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), announced in the early hours of Tuesday that it had been unable to register Corina Yoris' candidacy for the July 28 presidential elections within the deadline established by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

“Nicolás Maduro did not allow the postulation of the unitary candidacy. We were never allowed access to the nomination system”, said the PUD in a message on X.

Yoris had been picked last Friday given the disenfranchisement until 2036 of former Congresswoman María Corina Machado, who had won the alliance's primaries by a landslide in October.

Since the nomination process began last Thursday, the PUD denounced that it was prevented from accessing the system established by the CNE. The coalition insisted it had exhausted all means to register its candidate, despite launching a person who has no disqualification or administrative sanction.

“We have exhausted all means at our disposal so that this can be resolved,” Yoris said in a press conference on Monday morning.

On Sunday, the PUD asked the National Electoral Council (CNE) to extend for three days the period to postulate candidacies, to “correct the violations of fact and law that have occurred in the process.”

CNE Chairman Elvis Amoroso replied that the process of inscriptions of candidacies would close on Monday at 11.59 local time (03.59 GMT).

The PUD insisted it had been denied access to the system. ”We inform the national public opinion and the world that all day long we have been working (...), to try to exercise our constitutional right to run our candidate and it has not been possible. We have not been allowed access to the nomination system,” said leader Omar Barboza in a video.