By Euronews with AP
Published on
More than 21 million Venezuelan voters called to vote for legislators, governors and other officials amid growing government repression. But many citizens are considering whether to heed the opposition’s calls to boycott the vote and the ruling party’s calls to participate.
The election will be the first to allow a large voter turnout since last year’s presidential election, which President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won despite credible evidence to the contrary.
Dozens of arrests ahead of Venezuela’s vote
It will take place two days after his government arrested at least 70 people, including former National Assembly Vice-President and opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, linking them to an alleged plot to obstruct the vote.
The participation, in the eyes of the opposition, legitimises President Maduro’s claim to power and the repressive apparatus of his government, which has arrested more than two thousand people, including protesters, election workers, political activists and minors, since the presidential elections in July 2024, to suppress dissent.
Meanwhile, the ruling party is already boasting of a landslide victory across the country, just as it did in the previous regional elections, regardless of opposition participation.
A national poll conducted between 29 April and 4 May by the Venezuelan research company Delphos showed that only 15.9 per cent of voters were highly likely to vote on Sunday. Of these, 74.2 per cent said they would vote for candidates or allies of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, while 13.8 per cent said they would vote for candidates associated with two opposition leaders who are not boycotting the elections.
US support for opponents in Venezuela
“I think it is absolutely despicable,” opposition leader Humberto Villalobos said on Saturday, referring to the electoral participation of some opposition members. “We are facing the most brutal repression in recent years in the country. (The vote) is a comedy, a parody”.
Villalobos was the head of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s electoral division when, along with five other government opponents, he took refuge in a diplomatic compound in Venezuela’s capital in March 2024 to avoid arrest. He spent more than a year there and on Saturday, he and four others spoke publicly for the first time since they left the compound and arrived in the US earlier this month.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met with the group on Friday, described their departure from the compound as an international rescue operation. This claim was disputed by Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who said it was the result of negotiations with the government.
Voters also called to vote for Guayana Esequiba
The National Electoral Council, loyal to the ruling party, will oversee Sunday’s elections for state legislators, the 285 members of the unicameral National Assembly, and all 24 governors, including the newly created governorate purely set up to administer Guayana Esequiba, a region long disputed between Venezuela and neighbouring Guyana.
In Maduro’s Venezuela, Sunday’s results will have little impact on people’s lives because his highly centralised government controls virtually everything from the capital, Caracas.
Moreover, after the opposition gained control of the National Assembly in 2015, Maduro called an election for members of the Constituent Assembly in 2017. This body, controlled by the ruling party, declared itself superior to all other branches of government until it ceased to exist in 2020.