Venezuelans are choosing whether to give another six years to President Nicolás Maduro and extend the policies that have caused the world’s worst peacetime economic collapse, or whether to go with his last-minute opponent, retired diplomat Edmundo González.
Around 17 million people are eligible to vote.
González is representing a coalition of opposition parties after being selected in April as a stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, who was blocked by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice. For once, the opposition factions have managed to unite behind a single candidate.
Here’s the latest:
Polls are open as Venezuelans make their choice
CARACAS, Venezuela — Polls have opened in Venezuela, where 17 million voters must choose between handing the increasingly authoritarian Nicolás Maduro a third presidential term or throwing their support behind an unknown newcomer promising to end 25 years of single-party rule.
Retired diplomat Edmundo González is the only opponent on the ballot who represents a real threat to Maduro’s hold on power.
The opposition boycotted the 2018 presidential election, allowing Maduro to coast to victory at a time of hyperinflation and widespread shortages. Although electoral conditions have barely improved, it is competing this time because it believes widespread anger with Maduro’s mismanagement of the economy will ensure his defeat. The last time it went to polls as a unified front, in the 2015 parliamentary elections, it trounced the ruling socialist party.
Voters look for change
In the working class Petare neighborhood on the east side of Caracas, people lined up to vote hours before polls opened.
Judith Cantilla, a 52-year-old domestic worker said, “In the name of God, everything is going to turn out alright. Each person is going take their position and well, (it’s time for) change for Venezuela.”
She said the people were tired and that change for Venezuela is for more jobs, security, medicine in hospitals and better pay for teachers and doctors.
Elsewhere, Liana Ibarra, a manicurist in greater Caracas, got in line at 3 a.m. Sunday and found at least 150 people ahead of her.
The 35-year-old Ibarra said her aunt wrote to her from the U.S. at 2 a.m. to she if she was already in line.
With her backpack next to her loaded with water, coffee and cassava snacks, Ibarra said there used to be a lot of indifference toward elections, “but not anymore.”
Her mom’s 11 siblings have all migrated. She has not followed them, she said, because her 5-year-old son has special needs. But if González does not win, she will ask her relatives to sponsor her and her son’s application to migrate to the U.S. legally.
“We can’t take it anymore,” she said.
— Fabiola Sánchez and Regina García Cano
Party representatives blocked from observing at voting center
CARACAS, Venezuela — At least eight party representatives authorized by the National Electoral Council to provide oversight at the country’s largest voting center in the capital Caracas were being denied access more than an hour after polls were supposed to open.
Police officers linked arms around the door as the representatives showed their printed certificate that should give them access.
Marisol Contreras, 58, chief party representative for the Unitary Platform, said she arrived at 4 a.m. and was told she couldn’t go in to the elementary school.
People affiliated with the government stood at the door and indicated to them that all the necessary personnel was already inside.
Marlyn Hernandez, voting center coordinator, said she didn’t know why the authorized representatives were not being allowed in to the school where more than 11,000 people are registered to vote. The center opened 90 minutes late.
Maduro says he will respect the announced results
CARACAS, Venezuela — Incumbent President Nicolás Maduro says he will recognize the result of the presidential election and urged other candidates to publicly declare the same.
Maduro said after voting Sunday that “no one is going to create chaos in Venezuela.” He said that “I recognize and will recognize the electoral referee, the official announcements” and that he would make sure the result is recognized.
He called on the other nine candidates “to respect, to make respected and to declare publicly that they will respect the official announcement” of the winner.
Blinken calls for free and fair election in Venezuela
TOKYO, Japan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Venezuelans deserve an election “that genuinely reflects their will, free from manipulation.”
Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo Sunday, Blinken said the U.S. wil not prejudice the election’s outcome and that the international community will be “watching closely” while urging all parties to “honor their commitments and respect democratic process.”
Blinken said despite facing severe repression, Venezuelans are showing “enormous enthusiasm” for the election.
He said the U.S. and the international community have championed the Barbados electoral roadmap agreement to restore political freedoms in Venezuela,” even though Maduro and his representatives s have fallen short on many of those commitments.
Opposition candidate taunted at voting center
CARACAS, Venezuela — Opposition supporters greeted presidential candidate Daniel Ceballos with shouts of “Get out! Get out! Get out! Traitor!” as he arrived to vote at a school in downtown Caracas.
Ceballos was a leader of anti-Maduro protests in 2014 calling for the president’s resignation less than a year after his election. He was imprisoned for his actions.
Ceballos lost some of his edge after he emerged from jail years later. Most recently, he surprised friend and foe alike by registering to run against Maduro with a rhetoric critical of the main opposition coalition which considers him a sell out and a patsy for Maduro’s efforts to stay in power.
–Joshua Goodman
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