VENEZUELA-Machado Holds Back From Endorsing Rosales

Wires reporting comments from main opposition Unity Platform (PU) leader Maria Corina Machado following the closing of the registration process for presidential candidates. Machado herself was disqualified from running by the courts, with the PU opting to select Corina Yoris as its preferred candidate. Yoris was then unable to register as a candidate ahead of the midnight deadline on 26 March. The PU has argued that the automated enrollment system was gamed to stop Yoris getting on the ballot paper. Wires report Machado as stating she still support Yoris for the presidency.

• Manuel Rosales, an opposition politican from the New Era party, has managed to get on to the ballot. When asked whether she and the PU would back Rosales' candidacy, Machado stated that she and the party are taking decisions 'day by day'.
• The PU has argued that it's candiates have been barred from entering the contest as they would defeat incumbent President Nicolas Maduro in a landslide. Rosales is not an unknown quantity, having taken 32% of the vote in the 2006 presidential election. However, he has not been at the forefront of Venezuela's opposition movement for some time.
• As such, his entry onto the ballot does not indicate a fully free and fair election, but a partially free and fair one. It is unclear at this stage whether that level of democratic freedom will be enough for the US to stop the 'snap back' sanctions agains the O&G sector coming into force from 18 April.