Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro shuts down key opponents, sets up presidential election against 11 easy-to-beat rivals

The Venezuelan government closed down the registration process for July’s presidential election after midnight Monday without allowing top opposition leader María Corina Machado nor her proxy to compete, creating conditions for a victory for current leader Nicolas Maduro even though polls show his popularity is in the single digits.

Maduro, who was accused by the U.S. and 50 other countries of stealing the last presidential election, will now compete against 11 little-known and in most cases highly distrusted candidates, who are expected to divide the opposition vote among themselves.

The regime had previously announced that it would not allow Machado to participate in the election. The opposition leader, who according to most polls would easily beat Maduro with as much as 70% of the vote, on Friday appointed a little known university professor, Corina Yoris, to run as her substitute. But the regime controlled National Electorate Council did not allow Yoris to register to run..

The 11 candidates slotted to compete against Maduro on July 28 have lower showing in the polls than Maduro, whose popularity fluctuates around 9%. The best known figure is the governor of the state of Zulia, Manuel Rosales, who lost a presidential election in 2006 against Hugo Chávez.

Rosales, who heads one of the four largest opposition parties in Venezuela, managed to register his candidacy on Monday although his party had been backing Machado, who received more than 92% of the vote in a primary election held by the opposition in October.