The presidential candidate for the Un Nuevo Tiempo party (UNT), and governor of the state of Zulia, Manuel Rosales, warned that if the Unitary Platform and those who have a leading role do not decide, they will be left without a candidate.
"I am not going to be a candidate outside the Unitary Platform because we helped build that Platform. We believe in unity. I am not going to be a candidate like that," he said during his participation in the program Abriendo Puertas broadcast by Venevisión.
"There you have the two cards and the candidacy. Choose a candidate, male or female, decide, and if you don't like Manuel Rosales, say who you like and I'll give you that," he added.
He assured that thanks to his registration there is "a MUD (Democratic Unity Roundtable) card as an option in addition to the UNT card."
He also assured that his name was not the only one proposed to serve as a presidential candidate. "There were Gerardo Blyde, Ramón Guillermo Aveledo, the four governors (from the opposition, including him) and a long list of people who
could have run. “We spoke with many people and no one wanted to. At the last minute – in the last minutes – I saved the electoral path.”
According to the governor of Zulia, if he had not done so, "everything would have been lost. We would not be talking about votes, candidates or anything else today. That is the truth of the matter."
This. Decide – he said referring to the opposition – but if the PU and those who have a leading role do not decide, we will be left without a candidate because I will not be a candidate like this. I am not desperate to be a candidate, nor do I want to be a candidate to come in second or against anyone. I want to be a candidate to seek the reunion of Venezuelans, if it is my turn. If not, it will be up to whomever it is, to whomever they decide," he reiterated.
He also said that Edmundo González Urrutia, as the current candidate for the MUD, would "take care of the space on the card so as not to lose it, which we managed to save on the night of March 25."
María Corina is responsible for the division
Rosales accused María Corina of being responsible for the internal division of the Unitary Platform (PUD) and described as "extremely serious" the lack of provisions by the PUD to replace Machado after his disqualification.
"This disqualification has led us to this whole problem. The most serious thing is that no provision was made because they should have decided; if the candidate cannot register
who won the primaries, what is the replacement mechanism and it was not done. Very serious.
He insisted that he did not come to the candidacy with a plan. "Nor did I come here as a politician to maneuver to keep the candidacy. No. I give it to them, so they can assume it and tell the country what they are going to do. I hope they do not tell them that we are going to abstain. I prevented Maduro from being alone in the field today and having already decreed six more years of his presidency," he added.
Rosales insisted on his position, and asserted that although he has the support of Fuerza Vecinal, the MAS, Bandera Roja, the communist party and other political movements, he will not be a candidate outside the PUD. "We believe in unity, we are defenders of unity. Now I cannot come, at the last minute for a candidacy, to be part of the division of the PU."
