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Venezuelans voted on Sunday in an election many suspect may be marred by fraud and potentially end in violence. The results are expected after polls close at 6 p.m. local time.
President Nicolás Maduro seems on track for a defeat at the ballot box, polls suggest, but he has promised a “bloodbath” if he loses.
His main opposition for the presidency is Edmundo Gonzalez, a former diplomat who is the stand-in for opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was banned from running by Maduro’s government. A conservative, she has promised to privatize the country’s energy sector and bring home the millions of Venezuelans who have fled the country.
International observers have been blocked from entering the country for the vote, including a delegation of ex-presidents from around Latin America who tried to travel to Caracas from Panama on Friday.
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As Hugo Chavez’ successor, Maduro has consolidated power in a way many could not have predicted, El País noted, and he has perhaps more control over the country’s politics and military than Chavez himself despite being subject to international sanctions.
The fact the vote is happening at all is something of a surprise — Maduro has for years suppressed political opposition and blocked international electoral observers from oversight, and the opposition boycotted the last election, in 2018. Now, opposition leaders and people working for it have been subject to intimidation and some have been arrested, but they are also far more united against Maduro than in the past, The Economist noted.
“The regime’s dilemma is to rig or lose the election,” The Economist wrote. “This election looks trickier for the regime: stealing it against a united and seemingly mobilised opposition, and with palpable disillusion among many government supporters, might not be easy.”