Sawt Falasteen - Last shot for Venezuela opposition to register presidential candidate

As the deadline to register expires on Monday, Maduro, 61, will officially file his own candidacy for a third term to great fanfare, with thousands of supporters expected to rally behind him.

Venezuela goes to the polls on July 28 after a grim decade under Maduro's rule, marked by economic collapse that has pushed millions to flee the country.

Maduro, who was the handpicked successor of revolutionary mentor Hugo Chavez, is accused by rights groups of sliding into full-blown authoritarianism and clamping down on dissent.

"Whatever they do, whatever they say, they could not and will never be able to beat us," Maduro said last week, referring to the opposition and his perceived enemies.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, 56, won a primary vote last year hands down, and some opinion surveys put her support at about 72 percent.

However, she was banned from public office for 15 years by courts loyal to Maduro on charges of corruption widely dismissed as spurious, and for supporting Western sanctions against the government.

Machado has nevertheless kept campaigning, and on Friday, she tapped an 80-year-old university professor, Corina Yoris, as her stand-in.

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However, on the eve of the deadline to register, the opposition coalition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) said it had not received the necessary access codes to register Yoris on the National Electoral Council (CNE) website.

"The system is completely closed," Yoris told a press conference on Monday.

"My rights as a Venezuelan citizen are being violated," she said.

She said that her team had gone in person to the CNE to deliver a letter requesting a three-day extension to the period to nominate candidates, but had been unable to do so.

The final list of presidential candidates will be published at the end of April.

So far, 10 candidates have been registered as opposition aspirants, however are all considered aligned with Maduro's government.

UN chief Antonio Guterres last week warned against interference in the election.

Seven of Machado's party and campaign officials have been arrested, and warrants have been issued for several more, all accused of seeking to destabilize the country.

Many countries refused to recognize the results of Maduro's last election in 2018, citing fraud and a lack of transparency, and instead recognized parliamentary president Juan Guaido as the country's legitimate leader.

Six years later Maduro, 61, is still firmly in charge of the oil-rich nation after his rival's government collapsed and the war in Ukraine choked energy supplies and shifted global priorities.

R.Halabi--SF-PST