Maduro party eyes big win as Venezuela opposition boycotts vote

Maduro party eyes big win as Venezuela opposition boycotts vote

Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles casts his vote while holding his son at a polling station in Caracas

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's party was eyeing a landslide victory in legislative and regional elections Sunday, after an opposition boycott of the vote and a new crackdown on dissent.

The main opposition group, led by popular figurehead Maria Corina Machado, had urged voters to stay away in protest at Maduro's disputed reelection last year.

Turnout was noticeably low in the country's main cities, AFP journalists said.

Tensions were high on Sunday, with more than 400,000 security agents deployed to monitor the vote and over 70 people arrested in the run-up to the vote.

Among those arrested was leading opposition member Juan Pablo Guanipa, held on charges of heading a "terrorist network" planning to "sabotage" the elections.

Venezuela, which frequently alleges foreign-backed coup plots, said dozens of suspected mercenaries entered the country from Colombia and closed its busy border with its neighbor until after the election.

Delphos pollsters forecast a turnout of just 16 percent.

- 'Farce' -

The vote was for 285 members of the National Assembly and 24 governors -- including for the first time in Essequibo, an oil-rich region controlled by neighboring Guyana but claimed by Caracas.

The low level of participation testified to the lack of faith many Venezuelans have in the electoral process after last July's presidential vote.

Electoral authorities quickly declared Maduro the winner of a third six-year term, without releasing detailed results.

The opposition published its own tally from individual polling stations, showing a convincing win for its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

The crackdown on post-election protests left 28 dead, hundreds arrested, and cemented Venezuela's pariah status on the world stage.

Opposition leader Machado had slammed the latest vote as an "enormous farce that the regime is trying to stage to bury its defeat" in last year's election.

Polls opened at 6:00 am (1000 GMT), but by midday AFP journalists at polling stations in the capital Caracas, western city of San Cristobal and west-central Barinas reported that just a handful of voters had turned out.

Machado published several pictures of deserted polling stations on social media.

Writing on X, Gonzalez Urrutia, who went into exile in Spain late last year, said the voter stayaway was a "silent but resounding declaration that the desire for change, dignity and a future remains intact."

The National Electoral Council (CNE), accused of being under Maduro's thumb, nonetheless announced an extra hour of voting, until 7:00 pm (2300 GMT).

"I'm not going to vote because I voted (in the presidential election) and they stole the elections. So it's really a farce," said Candelaria Rojas Sierra, a 78-year-old retired civil servant in San Cristobal, on her way to mass to "pray for Venezuela."

Samadhi Romero, a 32-year-old university student, defended the election as an "important process of civic participation."

She voted for Maduro's son, 35-year-old MP Nicolas Maduro Guerra, who is seeking re-election in Caracas.

- 'Fight the dictatorship' -

A small opposition faction led by two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles refused to be part of the boycott, arguing that previous voter stayaways had merely allowed Maduro to expand his grip on power.

"We must vote as an act of resistance, of struggle," said Capriles, who is running for the National Assembly.

The election comes as the country's economy -- once the envy of Latin America, now in tatters after years of mismanagement and sanctions -- faces even further turmoil.

US President Donald Trump has revoked permission for oil giant Chevron to continue pumping Venezuelan crude, potentially depriving Maduro's administration of its last lifeline.

Washington has also revoked deportation protection from 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in the United States and expelled hundreds of others to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

Particularly closely watched will be the elections for the National Assembly and for state governor of Essequibo.

Guyana has administered the region for decades but Caracas has threatened to partially annex it.

bur-cb/des

Originally published as Maduro party eyes big win as Venezuela opposition boycotts vote