VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro was accompanied by thousands of supporters as he officially registered as a candidate for re-election yesterday.

He made the journey to the National Electoral Council offices in Caracas after a symbolic visit to the Mountain Barracks, as late president Hugo Chavez’s resting place is known.

“We arrive at this sacred place to pay honour to our unconquered commander and tell him we won’t ever fail him,” Mr Maduro declared.

On registering his candidacy the president challenged the opposition to “break its ties of dependence with the United States” and run against him.

The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable says it will not take part in April’s election, claiming it will be stolen, despite Venezuelan elections receiving repeated clean bills of health from international observers and its electoral process being described by former US president Jimmy Carter as “the best in the world.”

Former governor Henri Falcon announced his candidacy, denouncing Mr Maduro as “the candidate of hunger” and saying he was confident of victory.

His aides justified his decision to break the opposition boycott by saying that the government had made the “concession” of allowing international observers in, although it has always done this.

Mr Maduro welcomed the move, saying: “Join the race, compadre, and let’s take it to the street. We’ll take it to a public presidential debate.”

He has been boosted by a “unitary accord” between his ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) and the communists, who agreed to back him earlier this week.

The accord warns of the threat of intervention in Venezuelan politics by the US and its allies, with “the real possibility that the right-wing governments of Colombia, Brazil and Guyana may generate a provocation on our borders.”

It calls for the “adoption and strengthening of measures aimed at dismantling the power of private monopolies” and the development of “a new productive post-oil model of sovereign development.”