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Venezuela election 2024 live updates: Polls open across the country | AP News

Venezuela election 2024 live updates: Polls open across the country | AP News

Venezuela’s opposition leaders attended a rally at one of the main universities in Venezuela to speak with students about the future ahead should they win July 28 elections and end 25 years of socialist party rule. (AP Video shot by Andry Rincon)




 

Venezuela’s government is facing its toughest electoral test in decades. Sunday’s presidential election could give President Nicolas Maduro another six years in power, or end the self-described socialist policies that once successfully boosted anti-poverty programs but whose sustained mismanagement later pushed the country into an ongoing economic crisis.

For years, opposition politicians boycotted elections they saw as rigged, but as the government’s popularity has ebbed former rivals have banded together in an attempt to change the government at the ballot box.

Opposition candidate taunted at voting center

“Get out! Get out! Get out! Traitor!” Shouted a throng of opposition supporters as presidential candidate Daniel Ceballos arrived to vote at a school in downtown Caracas.

Ceballos was a leader of anti Maduro protests in 2014 calling for the president’s resignation less than a year after his election. For his hardline stance he was imprisoned.

When he emerged from jail years later, he lost some of his edge and more recently surprised friend and foe alike by registering to run against Maduro with a rhetoric critical of the main opposition coalition, which considers him a sell out and useful idiot of Maduro’s efforts to stay in power.

One face will be far more prevalent on Venezuelan ballots: Maduro’s

His smile is confident, his hair well-combed and his eyes are squinting slightly: The first candidate you’ll likely see on the ballot in Venezuela’s upcoming presidential election is Nicolás Maduro, the incumbent seeking reelection.

Unlike some of his nine challengers, Maduro shows up not once or twice, but a whopping 13 times on the ballot — and he’s certain to catch the voters’ attention.

Each time, it’s for one of the several political groups he is representing. Maduro takes up the entire first of the ballot’s four rows while the rest of the candidates’ photos are sprinkled here and there.

A supporter of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez points to a copy of an electoral card during a meeting with youth at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

A supporter of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez points to a copy of an electoral card during a meeting with youth at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)


The most talked about name is not on the ballot: María Corina Machado

Machado, a former lawmaker, entered 2024 as the group’s candidate after easily winning an October presidential primary, but a top court loyal to Venezuela’s ruling party affirmed in January an administrative decision to ban her from office. She appointed a substitute in March — former academic Corina Yoris — but she, too, was barred from the ballot. Four days later, the coalition picked González.


Issues at Caracas’ largest voting center

Marlyn Hernandez, voting center coordinator, said she “did not know” why the authorized party representatives were not being allowed into the school where more than 11,000 people are registered to vote.

The center opened 90 minutes late.

Voters looking for change

By FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ, REGINA GARCÍA CANO

In the working class Petare neighborhood on the east side of Caracas, people lined up to vote hours before polls opened.

Judith Cantilla, a 52-year-old domestic worker said, “In the name of God, everything is going to turn out alright. Each person is going take their position and well, (it’s time for) change for Venezuela.”

“We’re tired,” she said. “For me change in Venezuela (is) that there are jobs, that there’s security, there’s medicine in the hospitals; good pay for the teachers, for the doctors.”

Elsewhere, Liana Ibarra, a manicurist in greater Caracas, got in line at 3 a.m. Sunday and found at least 150 people ahead of her.

“My aunt wrote to me from the United States at 2 a.m. to ask me if I was already in line,” Ibarra, 35, said next to her backpack where she had water, coffee and cassava snacks. “There used to be a lot of indifference toward elections, but not anymore.”

Her mom’s 11 siblings have all migrated. She has not followed them, she said, because her 5-year-old son has special needs. But if González does not win, she will ask her relatives to sponsor her and her son’s application to migrate to the U.S. legally.

“We can’t take it anymore,” she said.

Party representatives blocked from observing at voting center

At least eight party representatives authorized by the National Electoral Council to provide oversight at the country’s largest voting center, located in Caracas were being denied access more than an hour after polls were supposed to open.

Police officers linked arms around the door as the representatives showed their printed certificate that should give them access.

Marisol Contreras, 58, chief party representative for the Unitary Platform, said she arrived at 4 a.m. and was told she couldn’t go in to the elementary school. People affiliated with the government stood at the door and indicated to them that all the necessary personnel was already inside.


Maduro says he will respect the announced results

“No one is going to create chaos in Venezuela,” Maduro said after voting. “I recognize and will recognize the electoral referee, the official announcements and I will make sure they are recognized.”

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.


Millions of Venezuelans living abroad hope for change that would allow them to return; unclear if election can offer that

By ASTRID SUÁREZ, NAYARA BATSCHKE, TERESA MEDRANO, GISELA SALOMON

The prolonged economic and political instability in Venezuela has forced millions of Venezuelans to leave over the past decade, quashing many of their dreams and leaving many wondering if they’ll ever return to what was once South America’s most prosperous country.

The refugee agency UNHCR estimates that more than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history, with most settling in the Americas, from neighboring Colombia and Brazil to Argentina and Canada.

“It is not just about changing the president,” said María Auxiliadora Añez, a 60-year-old Venezuelan living in Colombia. “We need quality of life, access to basic and essential services such as water and electricity.”

Who is the opposition’s Edmundo?

Edmundo González Urrutia began his career as an aide to Venezuela’s ambassador in the U.S. in the late 1970s. He had postings in Belgium and El Salvador and served as Caracas’ ambassador to Algeria.

His last post was as ambassador to Argentina during the first years of the presidency of Hugo Chávez, who came to power in 1999. Chávez transformed Venezuela with socialist policies like nationalizing industries and launching welfare programs. Chávez handpicked Maduro to replace him before dying of cancer in 2013.

More recently, González worked as an international relations consultant and wrote a historical work on Venezuela during World War II.

Maduro casts his vote at polling place in Caracas

Maduro voted shortly after polls opened at Fort Tiuna in Caracas, the country’s largest military installation.

He arrived with his wife and showed his ink-stained thumb indicating he had voted.

President Nicolas Maduro show his ballot during presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. Maduro is seeking re-election for a third term. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

President Nicolas Maduro show his ballot during presidential elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, July 28, 2024. Maduro is seeking re-election for a third term. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)


Voter waits hours for “the future of the country”

Alejandro Sulbarán snagged the first spot at his voting center, where he got in line at 5 p.m. Saturday. Wearing comfortable tennis shoes, a light jacket and baseball cap, he stood, and at times sat on the ground, outside an elementary school 20 minutes outside the capital.

“The future of the country,” Sulbarán said was his reason for his vigil in San Antonio de Los Altos. “We are all here for the change we want.”


Polls open across Venezuela

Venezuelans who had lined up hours before polls were scheduled to open can now cast their votes.


US Secretary of State Blinken calls for an election “free of manipulation”

Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Tokyo with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their Japanese counterparts, Antony Blinken said:

“Today, Venezuelans will cast their votes for president: a pivotal event amid severe political, humanitarian and economic crises.

“The U.S. and the international community strongly support Venezuelans’ right to vote and have championed the Barbados electoral roadmap agreement to restore political freedoms in Venezuela, even though Maduro and his representatives have fallen short on many of those commitments.”

“Despite facing severe repression, there is enormous enthusiasm across the country about this election.”

“The United States will not prejudge the outcome. This choice is for Venezuelans alone to make. The Venezuelan people deserve an election that genuinely reflects their will, free from manipulation.”

“The international community will be watching closely, and we urge all parties to honor their commitments and respect democratic process.”

How does Venezuela’s election work?

Venezuelans vote at electronic machines designed domestically.

Trust in the system has been affected by vote tampering claims, leading many voters to assume that even if the most votes do go against Maduro, there’s no guarantees the government will accept — or even admit to — that outcome.

None of those fraud claims have been proven by an independent third party.


What to know about the Venezuelan election

  • More than 21 million Venezuelans are registered to vote, but about 4 million of those have emigrated
  • Maduro is going for his third consecutive 6-year term
  • The opposition’s chosen candidate, María Corina Machado, was barred from running
  • Former diplomat González is the opposition’s hope to end Maduro’s rule