CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The future of Venezuela is on the line. Voters will decide Sunday whether to reelect President Nicolas Maduro, whose 11 years in office have been beset by crisis, or allow the opposition a chance to deliver on a promise to undo the ruling party’s policies that caused economic collapse and forced millions to emigrate.
Historically fractured opposition parties have coalesced behind a single candidate, giving the United Socialist Party of Venezuela its most serious electoral challenge in a presidential election in decades.
Maduro is being challenged by former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, who represents the resurgent opposition, and eight other candidates. Supporters of Maduro and Gonzalez marked the end of the official campaign season Thursday with massive demonstrations in the capital, Caracas.
The radical right is once again being expected to vote for a candidate like Urrutia simply because he is not Maduro. The centrists try to placate the right that they’ll get a better candidate in the future, but for now they just can’t let Maduro retain power and continue to destroy the country.
I’m sorry, but until the centrists are willing to nominate someone whose policies will be very popular with the people, they will continue to lose.
Nobody that isn’t a radical is going to candidate for that spot.