CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans are voting Sunday Presidential election The outcome could lead to a seismic shift in politics or prolong the policies that caused the world’s worst peacetime economic collapse by another six years.
Whether President Nicolás Maduro is elected, or his main opponent, retired diplomat Edmundo González, the election will have ripple effects across the United States. Government opponents and supporters alike have expressed their willingness to join the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already left their homes for opportunities abroad if Maduro wins another term.
Polling began at 6am, but voters began lining up at some polling centers across the country, sharing water, coffee and snacks for hours.
Voters look at the electoral roll before the start of voting in the presidential election, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Alejandro Sulbaran was the first to line up at his polling center at 5pm on Saturday. He said he stood outside an elementary school in the mountainous suburbs of the capital Caracas “for the future of the country”.
“We are all here for the change we want,” said Sulbaran, 74, who runs a maintenance business, as other voters nodded.
The number of eligible voters for this presidential election is estimated at around 17 million.
Polling was said to end at 6pm, but election officials did not immediately say whether it had actually started. The media was waiting for an official announcement.
President Nicolás Maduro voted. (AP video by Juan Ares, Lucas Dumbrace and Andre Rincon)
Opposition leader Marina Corina Machado. (AP Video/Lucas Dumbrace)
It is not clear when the Election Commission will publish its first results.
Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with the 70th birthday of former president Hugo Chavez, a revered left-wing spark who died of cancer in 2013. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever with many voters who blame his policies for suppressing wages, fueling hunger and crippling the oil industry. divides families Due to migration.
Maduro, 61, faces opposition Done sorting behind a candidate after years of internal party divisions and electoral boycotts that have fueled their ambitions to topple the ruling party.
Gonzalez represents a coalition of opposition parties Maria Corina MachadoHe was barred from running for office for 15 years by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice.
Machado, a former legislator, won the opposition’s October primary with 90% of the vote. After he was barred from entering the presidential race, he chose a college professor to replace him on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred him from registering. It was then that Gonzalez, a political newcomer, was elected.
More than 50 countries will go to the polls in 2024
Opposition leader María Corina Machado welcomes a supporter to vote during the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Christian Hernandez)
Eight other candidates are challenging Maduro on Sunday’s ballot, but only Gonzalez threatens Maduro’s rule.
After the vote, Maduro said he would recognize the election result and urged all other candidates to publicly announce they would do the same.
Maduro said that no one is going to create chaos in Venezuela. “Electoral arbitrator, I will approve and approve the official announcements and ensure that they are approved.”
Venezuela holds one of the world’s largest proven oil reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy. But it went into free fall after Maduro took over. Falling oil prices, widespread shortages and high inflation past 130,000% led first to social unrest and then to mass immigration.
Economic barriers US efforts to force Maduro from power after a 2018 re-election – which the US and dozens of other countries have condemned as illegal – have deepened the crisis.
Maduro’s pitch to voters in this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and low inflation rates. After contracting 71% from 2012 to 2020, the economy will grow 4% this year – the fastest in Latin America – the International Monetary Fund predicts.
Voters line up during presidential elections at the main polling center Andres Bello School in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Christian Hernandez)
But most Venezuelans have seen no improvement in their standard of living. Many earn less than $200 a month, meaning families struggle to afford essentials. Some Second and third jobs. A basket of basic staples — enough to feed a family of four for a month — is estimated at $385.
Judith Cantila, 52, voted to change those conditions.
“For me, in Venezuela there are jobs, there is security, there is medicine in hospitals, teachers are well paid, doctors are well paid,” he said. Caracas.
Elsewhere, Liana Ibarra, a manicurist in Greater Caracas, lined up at 3 a.m. Sunday with her backpack of water, coffee and tapioca snacks, with at least 150 people ahead of her.
“There was a lot of indifference about elections, but not anymore,” Ibarra said.
If Gonzalez loses, she said she will ask her relatives living in the United States to help finance her and her son’s legal immigration application. “We can’t take it anymore,” she said.
Leftist Helen Villalongo, president of AMAVEX, Nerlit Torres, president of the Blanco Nieves Sierra Foundation, and Adelise Ferro, executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, chanted for democracy during the fight for the right to vote in their country’s presidential election. , outside the former Venezuelan embassy in Miami, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (Carl Just/Miami Herald via AP)
A Venezuelan holds a sign in Spanish that reads: “Barinas is there. Edmundo President,” as Venezuelans rally in support of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez on Sunday, July 28, 2024, at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the day of Venezuela’s presidential election. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)
Opposition parties have sought to seize on the widening imbalances arising from a crisis in which Venezuelans abandoned their country’s currency, the bolivar, for the US dollar.
González and Machado have focused much of their campaign on the vast expanse of Venezuela, where the economic measures seen in Caracas in recent years have not materialized. They promised a government that would create enough jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad To return home and reuniting with their families.
After voting at a polling station adjacent to a church in an upscale Caracas neighborhood, González called on the country’s armed forces to respect “the decision of our people.”
“What we see today are lines of joy and hope,” Gonzalez, 74, told reporters. “Let’s exchange hate for love. Let’s change poverty for progress. Let’s replace corruption with honesty. We bid farewell to reunite.
An April poll by Caracas-based Delfos found that a quarter of Venezuelans said they would consider emigrating if Maduro wins Sunday. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Voters line up at a polling station before the start of voting for the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Christian Hernandez)
Most of the displaced Venezuelans over the past 11 years have settled in Latin America and the Caribbean. In recent years, many have begun to set their sights on America
Both campaigns distinguished themselves not only for the political movements they represented, but also for how they addressed voters’ hopes and fears.
Maduro’s campaign rallies featured lively electronic merengue dancing and speeches attacking his opponents. But after him It got hot Maduro has pulled back from comments about a “bloodbath” if he loses from leftist allies such as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. His son told Spanish newspaper El Pais that a ruling party would be formed The presidency should be handed over peacefully Failing that – a rare addition that could undermine the successful tone of the Maduro campaign.
A young man with a Venezuelan flag runs outside a polling station set up at the Venezuelan embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, on Sunday, July 28, 2024, the day of Venezuela’s presidential election. (AP Photo/Eraldo Perez)
In contrast, González and Machado’s rallies drew people to tears and chants. Freedom! Freedom! ” both of them passed. People surrendered Devout Catholics They carried rosaries, walked along highways, passed through military checkpoints and reached their events. Others called their displaced relatives via video to see the candidates.
“And we don’t want Venezuelans to leave, and I tell those who have left that we will do everything possible to bring them back here, and we will welcome them with open arms,” Gonzalez said Sunday.
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Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman and Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.
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