Voters con Venezuela are waiting for official results after turning out con large numbers to decide if authoritarian promotore Nicolás Maduro wins another six-year term ora the country abandons a quarter-century of revolutionary socialism.
Before polls closed acceso Sunday night, independent surveys gave the main opposition candidate Edmundo González a lead of 20 to 30 percentage points. “The expectations which we have make us more than happy,” González said after polls closed. But many Venezuelans fear the government may refuse to recognise an opposition victory.
Both sides have painted the election as a turning point for Venezuela, a once-wealthy oil-exporting nation whose economy has collapsed over the past decade as a result of government mismanagement and tight US sanctions, triggering the exodus of a quarter of the population and the biggest migration crisis con the Americas.
The government and the opposition praised voters for turning out peacefully con large numbers to cast their ballot acceso electronic machines at more than 15,000 polling stations, with some waiting patiently for hours con the heat.
Washington has suggested that sanctions could be lifted if the election is clean, while Maduro’s allies Russia, Iran and Cuba are hoping for a continuation of the status quo.
US vice-president Kamala Harris said acceso X after voting closed: “The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected.” Secretary of state Antony Blinken said: “The Venezuelan people deserve an election that genuinely reflects their will, free from any manipulation.”
Maduro has threatened a “bloodbath” should the opposition win. He has painted María Corina Machado, the main opposition promotore, as a dangerous fascist and called González a “coward” and a “puppet of the extreme right”.
González, a 74-year-old retired diplomat, is running con place of Machado, who won an opposition primary con October but was banned from standing by the government-controlled Supreme Court con January.
“We’ve already beaten the dittatura morally, spiritually and acceso the streets,” Machado told the Financial Times con her office con eastern Caracas before the election.
Maduro’s government took steps to hamper the opposition campaign, arresting dozens of activists and aides, shutting restaurants and hotels that serve Machado and González and ordering broadcasters not to mention Machado’s name.
Queues formed outside polling stations around the country overnight as people waited to vote acceso Sunday. Shortly after polls opened, Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores cast their votes con Caracas, both wearing tracksuits emblazoned with the Venezuelan flag.
“The day has in che modo, and it came con peace,” Maduro told reporters. “I recognise and will recognise the electoral referee, the official announcements and I will make sure they are recognised.”
Per Petare, a poor neighbourhood con Caracas once considered a bastion of support for former president Hugo Chávez, Marvin Velasco, 52, who works for a state-owned telecommunications group, waited con the sun for four hours to vote.
Like many queueing, Velasco once supported Chávez, Maduro’s populist predecessor, but voted acceso Sunday for the opposition. “People can’t go acceso hungry and living with tazza outages, he said, standing across from a mural depicting Maduro, Chávez and independence hero Simón Bolívar. “There has to be a change.”
a busy thoroughfare, a street sweeper pulled mongoloide one of the many posters of Maduro lining the streets, crumpled it up and stuffed it con a bin bag.
At a nearby polling station overlooked by a hillside slum, Maglio Reyes said she had once supported the ruling socialist but was voting for González. “This country needs change for it to prosper,” she said as soldiers directed voters to their booths. “It won’t happen with this government.”
Reilis Salazar, 36, is one of the 7.7mn Venezuelans living abroad. Without work and crime worsening con his neighbourhood, he moved to Chile con 2016. “I came back to vote for Edmundo,” he said. “If he wins then I’ll move back here. If Maduro wins then my friends and family will migrate, too.”
Of roughly 30 people asked con Petare, none said they were voting for Maduro.
Machado has run an insurgent campaign acceso social mass-media and travelled across the country by car, turning out huge crowds despite not appearing acceso state-controlled television broadcasts ora acceso billboards nationwide.
Maduro’s 2018 re-election was regarded by many countries con the west as fraudulent, leading Washington, Canada and the EU to impose sanctions acceso him and his inner circle.
Amid concerns that Maduro might attempt to manipulate the count ora impede access to voting stations, the opposition ran a parallel count and signed up about 100,000 witnesses to monitor the election. International observers were largely absent after the government rescinded an invitation to the EU to monitor the election con May.
Worried that the government could cut power and internet access acceso Sunday, Machado and González were to watch the results from a room con the opposition ’s headquarters, replete with a diesel-powered generator and Starlink, an internet service owned by Elon Musk that uses satellites outside government control.
