Venezuelans vote in election challenging Maduro’s power

Venezuelans will go to the polls on Sunday in an election described as the biggest challenge to the ruling socialist PSUV party since it came to power 25 years ago.

Nicolás Maduro — who has been president since the death of his mentor, Hugo Chávez, in 2013 — is running for a third consecutive term.

His main opponent is Edmundo González, a former diplomat backed by a coalition of opposition parties.

Polls show Mr González with a large lead over the incumbent, but because Mr Maduro’s 2018 re-election was widely criticised as not free and fair, there are concerns that the outcome of this election could be tampered with if it does not favour Mr Maduro.

These fears were heightened when Mr Maduro told his supporters that he would win “at all costs”.

Furthermore, there were only a very limited number of domestic election observers to monitor the vote – four from the United Nations and a small technical team from the Carter Center.

The head of the electoral body, a close ally of President Maduro, has revoked an invitation to European Union observers to attend.

Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández was also not invited after he said the Maduro government should accept the possibility of defeat in the vote.

Observers from Brazil canceled their attendance after Mr Maduro criticized them.

To compensate for the absence of international observers, the opposition mobilized thousands of people as witnesses at individual polling stations.

Despite the many hurdles the opposition has faced – including constant harassment and the arrest of more than 100 people linked to its campaign since the start of the year – it has made optimistic statements.

The article claimed that opinion polls had shown the party’s candidate leading President Maduro by such a large margin that he could not “steal the election”.

The government has dismissed opinion polls cited by the opposition, insisting its candidate is the frontrunner.

Mr Maduro himself used harsh language in the run-up to the vote, warning of a “bloodbath” if he was defeated.

That statement earned him a rare rebuke from Brazil’s leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who said Mr Maduro should learn that “if he wins, he stays in power, but if he loses, he goes”.

Mr Maduro has used the image of a fighting rooster as his campaign symbol and has taken a militant stance.

“We have weathered a thousand storms. They cannot defeat us, and they never will,” he said at the closing rally, alluding to some of the challenges he has overcome during his 11 years in office.

After being re-elected in 2018, an election widely criticized as neither free nor fair, he blocked an attempt by opposition leader Juan Guaidó to depose him by declaring himself the legitimate president.

While Mr Guaidó is backed by more than 50 countries, including the United States and the EU, Mr Maduro can count on the loyalty of Venezuela’s security forces.

Mr Guaidó’s parallel government eventually collapsed, as Mr Maduro used it to cast himself as “defender of Venezuela’s sovereignty”, a position he emphasized in his closing rally.

“On Sunday, we will prove it to the fascists, to the imperialists. We will shout, ‘Long live Venezuela, my beloved homeland,'” he said.

But despite these criticisms, many Maduro critics feel that this election — the first in more than a decade in which the majority of the opposition has united behind one candidate and not boycotted the vote — may be the best chance to remove him from office.

They overcame many hurdles on their way to voting, including the fact that their chosen candidate, María Corina Machado, was barred from running.

Those who wanted to see change in government united behind her replacement, 74-year-old Edmundo González, in record time.

One of the promises the opposition has made is that if they win, they will change the country, allowing millions of Venezuelans who have fled the political and economic crisis under the Maduro government to return.

The exodus of 7.8 million Venezuelans, and the fact that polls suggest this migration wave could increase if Mr Maduro wins, means this election will be closely watched in the United States and Latin American countries to which Venezuelans have fled in droves.

Cuba, China, Iran and Russia — all close allies of the Maduro government — will also be watching closely, as a victory by Mr. González would likely move Venezuela closer to them and toward the United States.

Mr González also told a rally of tens of thousands that “it is time to restore democracy” – a reference to the fact that in 25 years in power, the ruling PSUV party has gained control not only of the executive but also of the legislature and much of the judiciary.

What is most worrying for the opposition is that the CNE, the body that organizes elections and announces election results, is full of government loyalists.

Voting is being conducted electronically and results are expected to be announced by the CNE that same night, possibly as early as 20:00 local time (01:00 BST Monday).

Whoever wins will be sworn in on January 10, 2025.