Venezuela votes in election as opposition challenges Maduro’s grip on power | Elections News

About 21 million people are registered to vote, as reinvigorated opposition aims to end 25 years of socialist rule.

Polls have opened in Venezuela’s presidential election as incumbent Nicolas Maduro faces his toughest electoral battle since he came to power 11 years ago amid an ongoing economic crisis.

Nearly 21 million people are registered to vote, with a reinvigorated opposition trying to end the 25-year rule by the United Socialist Party with the promise to end the decade-long economic crisis that forced seven million people to emigrate.

Lines of voters were seen outside polling stations on Sunday in six different locations around the country, including some that opened late.

“I’ve been here since 5 am I came to vote for change, for a new Venezuela, which will be reborn and because I’m a public worker and we need change to be able to have a dignified salary,” Tibisay Aguirre, a 57-year-old cook who was waiting in line in Maracay in the central state of Aragua told Reuters news agency.

Polls close at 6 pm local time (22:00 GMT) and results could be published late on Sunday night or in the following days.

Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chavez, the revered leftist leader who died of cancer in 2013. Maduro, who took over after Chavez’s death, is seeking a third term in office.

Maduro, 61, is facing off against an opposition that has managed to line up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the governing party.

President Maduro’s main challenger is 74-year-old Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who was declared opposition bloc candidate after the main opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was banned from holding public office.

The opposition and observers have questioned whether the vote will be fair, saying decisions by electoral authorities and the arrests of opposition staff are meant to create obstacles.

Maduro – whose 2018 re-election is considered fraudulent by the United States, among others – has said the country has the world’s most transparent electoral system and has warned of a “bloodbath” if he were to lose.

Maduro’s government has presided over an economic collapse, the migration of about a third of the population, and a sharp deterioration in diplomatic relations. Sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and others have crippled an already struggling oil industry.

Maduro has said he will guarantee peace and economic growth, making Venezuela less dependent on oil income. He also said he would recognise the result of the presidential election and urged other candidates to publicly declare the same.

After voting on Sunday, Maduro said “no one is going to create chaos in Venezuela”.

“I recognise and will recognise the electoral referee, the official announcements,” and that he would make sure the result is recognised.

He called on the other nine candidates “to respect, to make respected and to declare publicly that they will respect the official announcement” of the winner.