By Mayela Armas
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s main opposition coalition will support Edmundo Gonzalez for president in July elections, its leadership said on Friday, after intense internal negotiations to determine who could replace President Nicolas Maduro.
The opposition has been struggling to nail down a candidate for the July 28 contest since the South American nation’s top court upheld a ban on opposition primary winner Maria Corina Machado from holding office. You say the ban is illegal.
The ban and several recent arrests of activists and opposition members have drawn repeated international condemnation.
The United States reimposed broad oil sanctions this week after saying Maduro’s socialist government had failed to comply with the terms of an electoral deal agreed with the opposition in October.
Venezuela is experiencing a prolonged economic crisis that has led around eight million people, more than a quarter of the country’s population, to flee the country in recent years in search of better prospects.
Despite Gonzalez’s nomination, the opposition fears that anyone nominated as a unity candidate could be subject to a ban before the race.
Gonzalez, 74, is a former ambassador to Argentina and is already registered to participate in the competition, after being proposed by the opposition group Democratic Unity in March.
Its registration had been considered provisional during internal negotiations. The decision to keep it on the ballot comes just a day before the deadline for replacements.
“The Unity Platform just unanimously approved the candidacy of Edmundo Gonzalez as the Unity candidate, after a high-level and respectful debate in which both Maria Corina Machado and Manuel Rosales participated,” coalition leader Omar Barboza said.
Rosales, the 71-year-old governor of Zulia province, had joined another opposition party, but Barboza said he would step aside to support Gonzalez.
About 46% of people surveyed by More Consulting this month said they would support the Machado-backed candidate, while about 21% said they would support Maduro and 5% said they would vote for Rosales.