Why Nico­las Maduro appears 13 times on the bal­lot for Venezuela’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — His smile is con­fi­dent, his hair well-combed and his eyes are squint­ing slight­ly: The first can­di­date you’ll like­ly see on the bal­lot in Venezuela’s upcom­ing pres­i­den­tial elec­tion is Nicolás Maduro, the incum­bent seek­ing reelec­tion.
Unlike some of his nine chal­lengers, Maduro shows up not once or twice, but a whop­ping 13 times on the bal­lot — and he’s cer­tain to catch the vot­ers’ atten­tion.
Each time, it’s for one of the sev­er­al polit­i­cal groups he is rep­re­sent­ing in the high­ly antic­i­pat­ed July 28 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. Maduro takes up the entire first of the ballot’s four rows while the rest of the can­di­dates’ pho­tos are sprin­kled here and there, includ­ing that of for­mer diplo­mat Edmu …