Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): Former Miranda state Governor Enrique Mendoza, who aspires to return to his old job at the regional elections on November 23, said opposition efforts to agree single unity candidates were moving ahead well, but then added that full accord would be reached by August 15.
It was the first public recognition that the opposition might not hit its self-set deadline of a full list by July 15, just one week away.
Omar Barboza, executive president of Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), which has been trying to nudge the opposition into hitting the target, noted that his party had stepped aside in eight states. However, Barboza admitted that settling on one candidate for mayor of Sucre municipality in east Caracas was proving "difficult and complex."
UNT has its own candidate, William Ojeda, in Sucre, a key target for the opposition where the incumbent is Jose Vicente Rangel Avalos, son of the former vice president. Ojeda faces stiff competition for the nomination, not least from Oscar Perez, chairman of the national Resistance Committee.
In theory, the opposition is basing selection on opinion polls, but signs are there's some horse-trading as well, and all the more so since Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russián banned 386 aspirant candidates.
Mayor Leopoldo Lopez of Chacao municipality in central Caracas, who's on Russian's list but wants to run for Metropolitan Mayor, advised the opposition to plough on backing barred candidates, as it has mostly done up to now. To move to a "Plan B" would be to play into the hands of Russian and the National Electoral Council (CNE), which were taking "directives" from presidential palace, Miraflores, he said. There was a campaign to discredit banned contenders, Lopez said, denying he planned to nominate his father to run for city mayor, or before that his wife.
"Tomorrow, they're going to say I'm putting forward Little Red Riding Hood to confront the big bad wolf," he added.
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