- author, Vanessa Buschsluter
- role, Latin America and Caribbean Editor, BBC News Online
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Venezuelans are facing what is seen as the biggest challenge for the ruling Socialist Unity Party (PSUV) since it took power 25 years ago.
Nicolas Maduro, who has been president since the death of his leader Hugo Chavez in 2013, will be running for a third consecutive term.
His main challenger is Edmundo Gonzalez, a former diplomat who is backed by the opposition coalition.
Opinion polls show Gonzalez with a large lead over the incumbent president, but Maduro’s 2018 re-election was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair, and there are concerns the results could be tampered with if the election does not go Maduro’s way.
These concerns have been exacerbated by Maduro telling his supporters he will win “whatever it takes.”
But after voting in the capital on Sunday, Maduro vowed to “ensure” the results are respected, AFP reported.
Reuters reported that Venezuelans began gathering at polling stations before voting was scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. local time (10 a.m. GMT).
Tensions rose outside polling stations in Caracas, with voters glaring and clashing as they queued to wait for the polling doors to open, the news agency reported.
There are only a very limited number of independent election observers monitoring the vote in the country: four from the United Nations and a small technical team from the Carter Center.
The head of the electoral commission, a close ally of President Maduro, cancelled an invitation for European Union observers to attend.
Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández was also not invited after he said Maduro’s government should accept the possibility of losing the election.
But Maduro has welcomed hundreds of guests from countries allied to his government and said they would “accompany” him to the vote.
Meanwhile, the opposition mobilized thousands of people to act as witnesses at each polling station.
The opposition is optimistic despite facing many challenges, including constant harassment since the beginning of the year and the arrest of more than 100 people linked to the opposition movement.
The party claims its candidate has a large lead over President Maduro in opinion polls and that he cannot “steal the election.”
The government has denied opinion polls cited by the opposition and said its candidate was in the lead.
Maduro himself used strong language ahead of the election, warning of “bloodshed” if he lost.
The comments drew an unusual rebuke from Brazil’s leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who said Maduro should learn that “if you win, you stay in power, but if you lose, you lose power”.
Maduro has used the image of a cockfighting as a symbol of his election campaign, lending it a combative air.
Image source, Getty Images
“We have weathered thousands of storms. No storm could ever defeat us, and they never will,” he said at the closing rally, referring to some of the challenges he has overcome during his 11 years in power.
He then thwarted an attempt by opposition leader Juan Guaido to step down by declaring himself the legitimate president after a 2018 re-election widely dismissed as neither free nor fair.
While Guaido has the backing of more than 50 countries, including the United States and the European Union, Maduro can count on the loyalty of Venezuela’s security forces.
Eventually, Guaido’s parallel government faded and Maduro used it to portray himself as the “defender of Venezuelan sovereignty,” a point he made at his final rally.
“On Sunday we will prove it to the fascists and imperialists. We will shout: ‘Live Venezuela, our beloved homeland,'” he said.
But despite the combative rhetoric, many of Maduro’s critics feel the election – the first in more than a decade in which most of the opposition is united behind a single candidate and not boycotting the vote – may be their best chance to remove Maduro from power.
They overcame many obstacles on their way to the polls, not the least of which was the fact that their chosen candidate, Maria Corina Machado, was barred from running in elections.
In record time, those wanting a change of government rallied behind her successor, 74-year-old Edmundo Gonzalez.
One of the opposition’s pledges is that if they win, they will rebuild the country and allow millions of Venezuelans who fled the political and economic crisis under Maduro to return home.
The election will be closely watched in the United States and Latin American countries where Venezuelans have fled in large numbers, with 7.8 million Venezuelans in exile and polls suggest that number could rise if Maduro wins.
Cuba, China, Iran and Russia are all close allies of the Maduro regime and will also be keeping a close eye on them as a Gonzalez victory would make it more likely that Venezuela will move away from them and towards the United States.
“The time has come to restore democracy,” Gonzalez also told the rally, which drew tens of thousands of people, a reference to the fact that the ruling PSUV has gained significant control over not only the executive but also the legislative and judicial branches during its 25 years in power.
What worries the opposition most is that the CNE, the body that will organize the elections and announce their results, is dominated by government supporters.
Voting will be conducted electronically and the result will be announced by the CNE as early as 8pm local time (1am BST on Monday) tonight.
Whoever wins will be sworn in on January 10, 2025.
