The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado will not attend the Nobel peace prize ceremony and the award will be accepted by her daughter, organisers have said.

Machado has been seen only once in public since going into hiding in August last year amid a tense showdown with the president, Nicolás Maduro . Venezuela’s attorney general has said Machado, 58, would be considered a “fugitive” if she left the country to accept the award.

It was unclear in the hours before the ceremony on Wednesday whether or not Machado was in Norway for the event – due to start at 1pm (1200 GMT) – but the Nobel Institute spokesperson Erik Aasheim finally confirmed that she would not be there.

“It will be her daughter Ana Corina Machado who will receive the prize in her mother’s name,” the Nobe

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