CARACAS, April 20, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Venezuela's political opposition on Friday ratified the candidacy of a little-known diplomat as its stand-in for July presidential elections in which President Nicolas Maduro will seek a third term.

Former ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia will challenge Maduro as the opposition's candidate in the July 28 vote, replacing a popular leader who has been sidelined by courts loyal to Maduro.

The decision to back Gonzalez Urrutia was made "by unanimity" of the opposition alliance's leaders, general secretary Omar Barboza told media.

"It is a historic decision for the people of Venezuela," Barboza said. "We have chosen the next president of the Republic."

Gonzalez Urrutia, 74, was not present at the announcement.

A political analyst who formerly was Venezuela's ambassador to Argentina and Algeria, Gonzalez Urrutia will serve as a place holder for Maria Corina Machado, who swept opposition primaries last year, garnering more than three million votes.

Machado has been banned from public office for 15 years by courts under the Maduro government.

She tried to register a proxy, planning to keep fighting from the sidelines and eventually step in and run in the election at the last minute, but electoral authorities blocked that candidate as well.

In the end, the opposition managed to register Gonzalez Urrutia as a "provisional" candidate, although Machado has not given up on her aspiration to run in July.

Another last-minute candidate, Governor Manuel Rosales of the oil-rich state of Zulia, whose party is a member of the opposition alliance, pulled out of the race.

Rosales said he had signed up provisionally to prevent the opposition from being completely left out of the July vote.

Many alliance supporters saw Rosales as jockeying to serve as a palatable rival in Maduro's eyes, raising concerns.

"We want to acknowledge Governor Manuel Rosales, he is a man who keeps his word... who decided to decline his candidacy to join the candidacy of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia," Barboza said.

Many countries, including the United States, refused to accept the results of Maduro's 2018 victory, alleging fraud and a lack of transparency. That vote was boycotted by the opposition.

The United Nations estimates that almost eight million Venezuelans have fled their country since 2014 -- the year after Maduro took office.

The past decade has seen a severe economic crisis marked by runaway inflation and food and medicine shortages, plunging the population into misery.