By Mayela Armas
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s major opposition coalition will back Edmundo Gonzalez as its unity presidential candidate for July’s election, its leadership said on Friday, after intense internal negotiations to determine who could take on President Nicolas Maduro.
The campaign has already been marked by arrests and bans on candidates, with critics alleging that Maduro’s ruling party has prevented a free and fair election.
Gonzalez, a former ambassador, is already registered to compete in the contest, after his name was put forward as a placeholder after both the winner of the opposition primary and her alternate were both unable to register.
The decision to keep Gonzalez comes just a day before a substitution deadline.
“The unitary platform has just unanimously approved the candidacy of Edmundo Gonzalez as the unity candidate after a high-level and respectful debate where both Maria Corina Machado and Manuel Rosales participated,” said coalition leader Omar Barboza.
Machado is the opposition primary winner barred from registering, while Rosales, the governor of Zulia province, had registered under a different opposition party.
(Reporting by Mayela Armas; Editing by William Mallard)
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