Venezuela: González Urrutia, María Corina Machado's candidate, destroys Maduro in the polls

The Venezuelan opposition is a large majority. According to the latest polls, the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia - appointed by María Corina Machado after being disqualified -, has an advantage of more than 20 points in voting intentions over Nicolás Maduro. Averages calculated by the newspaper El País show that González Urrutia would win in a presidential election with guarantees of 50% of the ballots, while Maduro would obtain between 22% and 25%.

"González Urrutia already has almost all the support that María Corina had, and can continue to grow," explained Saúl Cabrera, from the firm Consultores 21.

In that sense, Cabrera maintained that the candidates who have been accused by the democratic opposition of being part of the regime's strategy do not have the support of Venezuelans. Many of these leaders could have been candidates for some traditional parties in Venezuela such as Democratic Action or Primero Justicia thanks to the fact that the dictatorship intervened in those political organizations to give them to these politicians who have been accused of being traitors by the majority of the Venezuelan democratic opposition.

"Minority candidates and judicialized parties have not taken off, they remain within small and similar margins. I believe that the government did not succeed in this attempt to fragment the vote," Cabrera highlighted.

The recent data coincides with a projection made in May by Consultores 21 and reviewed by the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional. The consulting firm indicated that Edmundo González has an electoral ceiling of 50%, and exceeds Nicolás Maduro by 18%, whose ceiling is 32%. Furthermore, the firm pointed out that if the presidential elections have massive citizen participation (participation of 13,120,000 voters, 82% of the electoral registry, or with 12,000,000 voters, 75% of the registry) González Urrutia would win with a percentage difference between 13% and 14%: 1,600,000 votes.

"The electoral process is also marked by schemes of persecution"

Although the numbers are favorable for the Venezuelan opposition that seeks to leave the socialist regime that has caused an exodus of more than eight million Venezuelans, the opposition leadership still has to face the difficulties of election day on July 28. There will be no international observation in this electoral process and several organizations have condemned the lack of transparency on the part of the dictatorship.

"The electoral process is also marked by schemes of persecution and intimidation of the democratic opposition. Hotels in the states of Falcón and Zulia have been fined and closed for hosting opposition leaders. Diosdado Cabello, vice president of the PSUV, has openly declared his following of María Corina Machado, which complicates the carrying out of opposition mobilizations and is perceived as a potential threat," denounced the non-governmental organization Electoral Transparency.