Photo: Raul Arboleda Agence France-Presse A woman votes in Caracas on Sunday as Venezuela holds a presidential election.
Patrick Fort – Agence France-Presse and in Caracas
Published at 11:53 a.m. Updated at 1:41 p.m.
- Americas
“Until victory,” promises the government, “Until the end,” swears the opposition: some 21 million Venezuelans are electing their president on Sunday, a tense vote between Nicolas Maduro, who is seeking a third six-year term, and the diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
Queues have formed in front of many polling stations, which are scheduled to close at 6 p.m., with results expected during the night. But in the face of a large turnout, they could stay open longer, as the law provides.
Experts believe that participation is one of the keys to the election, with the opposition needing a strong turnout to win.
“I recognize and will recognize the electoral arbiter, the official statements and I will enforce them,” Maduro assured after voting in Caracas, while the opposition fears fraud or manipulation.
Photo: Juan Barreto Agence France-Presse Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro voted in Caracas.
The outgoing president described a “permanent battle between good and evil, [between] those who want violence and those of us who love Venezuela, who have weathered all the storms and want to continue moving forward in harmony.”
To great applause at the polling station where he went late in the morning, Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia assured him: “We are ready to defend until the last vote.”
“The only important news is the millions of Venezuelans throughout the country who are exercising their right to decide,” he said.
Griselda Barroso, a 54-year-old lawyer, went to her polling station at 4:30 in the morning. “I hope the day is fruitful and that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia triumphs. I hope there will be democracy” in Venezuela.
In the 23 de Januario neighborhood, a bastion of power, Maria de Rivero, 83, says she is a “Madurista,” proud of her record.
“I am with him, […] everything is going to improve. I am happy because there has been a lot of education, which was not the case before. The poor, the children could not enter university.”
In the oil-rich state of Zulia (west), a student claims that the government buys votes. “When I went to vote, a woman was standing next to the machine […]. She signaled to another person to tell him that I had voted for Edmundo,” she explains.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“Then they put a yellow sticker on my ID card. They put a black sticker on the cards of people who voted for Maduro. This black sticker entitles you to a Clap bag [of food aid, editor’s note] at the exit of the polling station,” she says.
There are ten candidates in the running, but the election is coming down to a duel between Nicolas Maduro, 61, and the discreet Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 74, who replaced at short notice the charismatic opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was declared ineligible.
The polls show the opposition in the lead by a wide margin, but some observers say the fight is close. The regime, for its part, is confident of its victory.
Heir to Hugo Chavez, the former socialist-inspired president from 1999 until his death in 2013, Mr Maduro, who relies on the army and police harassment of the opposition, regularly promises that he will not give up power, predicting chaos without him. During the campaign, he spoke of a possible “bloodbath in a fratricidal civil war provoked by fascists.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that “the Venezuelan people deserve an election that truly reflects their will, free from manipulation.”
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Most pollsters estimate that Mr. Maduro will not exceed 30% and put the opposition at between 50 and 70%.
The oil country, long one of the richest in Latin America, is bled dry, mired in an unprecedented economic crisis.
As a result of mismanagement and corruption, oil production has collapsed, GDP has shrunk by 80% in ten years with hyperinflation that has forced the authorities to partially dollarize the economy.
Attitude of the army
Seven million Venezuelans — a quarter of the country’s 30 million inhabitants — have fled the country. Many of those who have remained live in poverty, with health and education systems in disrepair.
The government blames the “criminal blockade” for all the problems. The United States had tightened its sanctions in an attempt to oust Mr Maduro after his disputed re-election in 2018, in a vote that the opposition said was tainted by fraud and which led to protests that were harshly repressed.
Washington tried to force Mr Maduro into “democratic and competitive” elections, without moving Caracas, which confirmed Ms Machado’s ineligibility and withdrew its invitation to the European Union to observe the vote.
At the same time, the White House, eager to revive Venezuelan production in a context of tension over crude, has opened the door, with exploitation permits for foreign oil companies.
Many fear that the current president, often described as a “dictator” by the opposition, will try to distort the game.
One of the keys will be the attitude of the security apparatus. “The Bolivarian National Armed Forces support me,” said Mr. Maduro. Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia said he was “convinced that the armed forces will ensure that the decision of our people is respected.”