UNT leader and Zulia state Governor Manuel Rosales during a party press conference. Photo: Efecto Cocuyo/File photo.
After registering a wild card candidate for the primary elections, Venezuelan political party Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) stated that the primaries do not yet have the conditions to register the current governor of Zulia State, Manuel Rosales, as its candidate.
The vice-president of UNT, Luis Emilio Rondón, stated that Manuel Rosales’ candidacy would be subject to the fulfillment of the primary elections’ conditions. For this reason, they registered a wild card candidate while they decide whether to make the Zulia state governor the official candidate.
On Saturday, UNT registered a candidate at the last minute to keep its position in the opposition primaries. However, they have a maximum of 30 days to change the candidate.
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UNT was one of the political organizations to approve the use of automated systems for the primaries with the assistance of the National Electoral Council (CNE). However, after initially announcing the primaries’ use of CNE’s technical assistance, the National Primary Commission (CNP) announced that they would be self-managed manually and without fingerprint scanners.
“We were very excited that the primary process was automated, that is to say, with technical support from the CNE. As of today, we do not know where the voting centers will be. The Electoral Registry is not consolidated. There is an overwhelming amount of details,” Rondón said.
Given this scenario, they requested 15 more days from the CNP to “evaluate all the details” before presenting an official candidate.
However, according to the president of Datanálisis, Luis Vicente León, Manuel Rosales is analyzing other factors. Among them is whether it is convenient to run for the presidential elections with the risk of losing the governorship of Zulia.
In this sense, León said that it is most likely that if Rosales’ candidacy becomes a reality, he will withdraw from the process.
“He is not willing to leave the governorship of Zulia to throw himself into an electoral ravine where he does not have a concrete option,” said León in an interview.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SF
