Maduro shuts down key opponents, sets up presidential election against 11 easy-to-beat rivals

The Venezuelan government closed down the registration process for July’s presidential election after midnight Monday without allowing top opposition leader María Corina Machado nor her proxy to compete, creating conditions for a victory for current leader Nicolas Maduro even though polls show his popularity is in the single digits.

Maduro, who was accused by the U.S. and 50 other countries of stealing the last presidential election, will now compete against 11 little-known and in most cases highly distrusted candidates, who are expected to divide the opposition vote among themselves.

The regime had previously announced that it would not allow Machado to participate in the election. The opposition leader, who according to most polls would easily beat Maduro with as much as 70% of the vote, on Friday appointed a little known university professor, Corina Yoris ,to run as her substitute. But the regime controlled National Electorate Council did not allow Yoris to register to run.

The 11 candidates slotted to compete against Maduro on July 28 have lower showing in the polls than Maduro, whose popularity fluctuates around 9%. The best known figure is the governor of the state of Zulia, Manuel Rosales, who lost a presidential election in 2006 against Hugo Chávez.

Rosales, who heads one of the four largest opposition parties in Venezuela, managed to register his candidacy on Monday although his party had been backing Machado, who received more than 92% of the vote in a primary election held by the opposition in October.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Machado questioned the legitimacy of an election where Maduro got to pick his own rivals, but said the regime is underestimating the will of the Venezuelan people to enact political change.

“I think that what happened last night will in the end accelerate the transition. These actions are too dark and grotesque and the country deeply rejects them. And what’s left for us to do now is to continue organizing our social movement,” Machado said.

Most analysts had predicted that Maduro would never allow Machado to enter the race, given that there was very little chance he would beat her, even while controlling an election council that runs elections without any type of independent supervision.

There is a long history of election fraud associated with elections held by the regime. In the most recent example, a referendum held late last year to define if Venezuela should invade Guyana had a scant participation of nearly 900,000, according to military insiders, but the regime was quick to announce that more than 10 million participated.

The regime is organizing the election amid growing social tension, which continues to accumulate despite the fact that close to 8 million Venezuelans have already left the country.

Political science professor Orlando Viera Blanco said there are millions of people in Venezuela who are hoping to see a political change this year and that they might also decide to leave if it does not happen.

“The situation in Venezuela continues to be very precarious and miserable, with poverty levels of more than 80%, and of 52% of extreme poverty, and this is fueling the decision to leave,” he said. “We again have a situation where 30% of the population is thinking about abandoning the country if we don’t get rid of Maduro at this point.”