The Venezuelan government has barred a prominent opposition leader from running in the South American nation's Dec. 6 legislative elections hours before the wife of embattled President Nicolás Maduro announced she would seek a seat in the National Assembly.

María Corina Machado, a former assemblywoman who was stripped of her congressional seat after she called for Maduro's resignation and led last year's violent street protests, failed to make required financial disclosures, the National Elections Council claimed, according to the Associated Press.

Machado was among a handful of other high-profile Maduro critics barred from holding public office. The state prosecutor's office has accused her of conspiring to assassinate the president, a charge the Caracas native has denied as "ridiculous."

"The regime has taken another step in its onslaught against me" Machado told Agence France-Presse after her registration was rejected. "They don't want to let me put my name forward as a deputy in the National Assembly."

The 47-year-old announced that Isabel Pereira, a 70-year-old Caracas sociology professor, would replace her on the ballot, the AP noted.

"Choosing the right person to be our voice in the (National Assembly) has been one of the most difficult decisions of my political life," Machado said, according to El Nacional. But Pereira "has an extraordinary life story and record of service to the country; she knows Venezuela very well, from one end to the other."

Maduro, meanwhile, insisted that he was not behind the candidacy of his wife, Cilia Flores. The first lady formerly served as head of the National Assembly and as Venezuela's attorney general.

"She consulted me about it, and I told her, 'You are free to fight your own battles because you have your own leadership qualities, your own space, and there is no 'machismo' here that will limit you,'" the president noted, according to the AP.

According to Últimas Noticias, Maduro called on all National Assembly candidates from his socialist coalition to "outdo" current legislators, who he said had formed the "most patriotic, loyal, disciplined and hard-working parliamentary majority" in the country's history.