Justice First party leader Henrique Capriles attending a party event, sharing a document identifying himself as his party's candidate for the opposition primaries. Photo: Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press/File photo.
Tensions between the Venezuelan opposition parties have increased after the Unitary Platform recently approved the proposal of the Justice First (PJ) party candidate for the opposition primaries, Henrique Capriles, to discuss the substitution of disqualified candidates.
According to anti-Chavista journalist Vladimir Villegas, the Unitary Platform approved a request by Capriles to hold a discussion on the rule of substitution of candidates, in view of the political disqualification of three of the candidates to the opposition primaries.
Plataforma Unitaria aprueba propuesta de HCR de discutir , antes del 22 de octubre, normas de sustitución de candidato si el electo está inhabilitado . Causa R se opuso.
— Vladimir Villegas (@Vladi_VillegasP) August 29, 2023
According to several polls, the candidates that hold greater voting intentions among the public for the opposition primaries are María Corina Machado, Henrique Capriles, and Freddy Superlano. All of them are disqualified from holding public office by decisions taken by the Comptroller General’s Office a number of years ago.
In view of this, Capriles proposes that if a disqualified candidate is elected in the primaries, the opposition should elect a substitute to be the candidate in the 2024 presidential elections.
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However, the substitution of candidates is an issue that has generated tensions among opposition actors, polarizing the divide between those who support this mechanism, and others who are against the imposition of handpicked candidates.
Following the announcement of Capriles’ proposal, the first party to reject the measure was La Causa R party. The candidate to the primaries for La Causa R, Andrés Velásquez, confirmed his rejection of this request, stating that the elections are not “a pact of elites.”
Claro que nos opusimos. La primaria no es de una cúpula. La primaria es de la gente para que escoja el candidato con su voto y no Maduro mediante cúpula interpuesta. Tendrán que leer muy bien los resultados y acatarlos. Que esto se filtre ratifica nuestra postura.
G4 se acabó https://t.co/WIx3humaCN— Andrés Velásquez (@AndresVelasqz) August 29, 2023
“The primary is for the people to choose their candidate with their vote, not Maduro by means of an interposed group,” said the opposition politician, in reference to Capriles and his recently announced alliance with Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) party leader, Manuel Rosales.
For Velásquez, Capriles and Rosales are simply proxy agents of the government of Nicolás Maduro. Velásquez also stated that the opposition must read the results and abide by them, because the “G4 [the most extreme and largest wing of the opposition] is over.”
La alianza potencial entre Capriles y Rosales es la antesala de un acuerdo político, dentro de la oposición institucional, que busca tres cosas fundamentales:
1) aprovechar las fuerzas organizativas de los partidos con estructuras nacionales y sus gobernadores y alcaldes para…— Luis Vicente Leon (@luisvicenteleon) August 29, 2023
Tensions also intensified after the announcement of this alliance between the UNT and PJ parties; a fact that would allow the UNT votes to go to Henrique Capriles, should his proposal be put into place.
The combination of the proposal by Capriles and the recent party alliance would appear to confirm rumors that in case he wins the primaries, the representative for the presidential elections would in fact be Manuel Rosales.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
