{"id":43429,"date":"2024-07-29T04:18:59","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T04:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=43429"},"modified":"2024-07-29T04:19:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T04:19:01","slug":"venezuela-presidential-election-voters-await-for-results-which-can-end-the-one-party-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/07\/29\/venezuela-presidential-election-voters-await-for-results-which-can-end-the-one-party-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela Presidential election: Voters await for results which can end the one party rule"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Venezuelans waited anxiously for the results of Sunday\u2019s\u00a0presidential election<\/strong>that could pave the way to an end to 25 years of single party rule, even as some polls appeared to remain open six hours after a deadline to close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/strong>, in seeking a third term, faced his toughest challenge yet from the unlikeliest of opponents: Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez, a retired diplomat who was unknown to voters before being tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opposition leaders were already celebrating, online and outside a few voting centers, what they assured was a landslide victory for Gonz\u00e1lez. Their hope was boosted by purported exit polls showing a healthy margin of victory for Gonz\u00e1lez. Exit polls are not allowed under Venezuelan law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019m so happy,\u201d said Merling Fern\u00e1ndez, a 31-year-old bank employee, as a representative for the opposition campaign walked out of one voting center in a working class neighborhood of Caracas to announce results showing Gonz\u00e1lez more than doubled Maduro\u2019s vote count. Dozens standing nearby erupted in an impromptu rendition of the national anthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the path toward a new Venezuela,\u201d added Fern\u00e1ndez, holding back tears. \u201cWe are all tired of this yoke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro supporters were not showing any signs of throwing in the towel, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t give results, but we can show face,\u201d a smiling Jorge Rodriguez, campaign chief for Maduro, said at a press conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polls were supposed to begin closing at 6 p.m. but almost six hours after the deadline some voting centers in Caracas appeared to remain open. The opposition called for the National Electoral Council to begin counting ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the decisive moment,\u201d Machado, flanked by Gonz\u00e1lez, told reporters at their campaign headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Machado was careful not to claim victory before authorities announce results but said she had already received copies of some official voting tallies and they indicated a record turnout \u2014 exactly what the opposition needed to overcome Maduro\u2019s well-greased electoral machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gonz\u00e1lez was similarly enthused, congratulating Venezuelans on the \u201chistoric\u201d day and urging supporters to \u201ccelebrate in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris<\/strong> offered her support. \u201cThe United States stands with the people of Venezuela who expressed their voice in today\u2019s historic presidential election,\u201d Harris wrote on X. \u201cThe will of the Venezuelan people must be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few Maduro allies were also projecting confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ballot boxes express what the streets said during these past few months of campaigning,\u201d Maduro\u2019s son, lawmaker Nicolas Maduro Guerra, said on X as night fell on the capital. \u201cVictory for the Venezuelan people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the absence of any order to close polls, their optimism rang hollow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters started lining up at some voting centers across the country before dawn Sunday, sharing water, coffee and snacks for several hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas, with government opponents and supporters alike signaling their interest in joining the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already left their homes for opportunities abroad should Maduro win another six year term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities set Sunday\u2019s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushing wages, spurring hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families<\/strong> due to migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro, 61, is facing off against an opposition that has managed to line up<\/strong> behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the ruling party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Machado<\/strong> was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years. A former lawmaker, she swept the opposition\u2019s October primary with over 90% of the vote. After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a college professor as her substitute on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering. That\u2019s when Gonz\u00e1lez, a political newcomer, was chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s ballot also features eight other candidates challenging Maduro, but only Gonz\u00e1lez threatens Maduro\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After voting, Maduro said he would recognize the election result and urged all other candidates to publicly declare that they would do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one is going to create chaos in Venezuela,\u201d Maduro said. \u201cI recognize and will recognize the electoral referee, the official announcements and I will make sure they are recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela sits atop the world\u2019s largest proven oil reserves, and once boasted Latin America\u2019s most advanced economy. But it entered into a free fall after Maduro took the helm. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000% led first to social unrest and then mass emigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic sanctions<\/strong> from the U.S. seeking to force Maduro from power after his 2018 reelection \u2014 which the U.S. and dozens of other countries condemned as illegitimate \u2014 only deepened the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro\u2019s pitch to voters this election is one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and lower inflation rates. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 4% this year \u2014 one of the fastest in Latin America \u2014 after having shrunk 71% from 2012 to 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most Venezuelans have not seen any improvement in their quality of life. Many earn under $200 a month, which means families struggle to afford essential items. Some work second and third jobs<\/strong>. A basket of basic staples \u2014 sufficient to feed a family of four for a month \u2014 costs an estimated $385.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judith Cantilla, 52, voted to change those conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, change in Venezuela (is) that there are jobs, that there\u2019s security, there\u2019s medicine in the hospitals, good pay for the teachers, for the doctors,\u201d she said, casting her ballot in the working-class Petare neighborhood of Caracas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, Liana Ibarra, a manicurist in greater Caracas, got in line at 3 a.m. Sunday with her water, coffee and cassava snack-laden backpack only to find at least 150 people ahead of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere used to be a lot of indifference toward elections, but not anymore,\u201d Ibarra said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said that if Gonz\u00e1lez loses, she will ask her relatives living in the U.S. to sponsor her and her son\u2019s application to legally emigrate there. \u201cWe can\u2019t take it anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition has tried to seize on the huge inequalities arising from the crisis, during which Venezuelans abandoned their country\u2019s currency, the bolivar, for the U.S. dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gonz\u00e1lez and Machado focused much of their campaigning on Venezuela\u2019s vast hinterland, where the economic activity seen in Caracas in recent years didn\u2019t materialize. They promised a government that would create sufficient jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad to return home<\/strong> and reunite with their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After voting at a church-adjacent poll site in an upper-class Caracas neighborhood, Gonz\u00e1lez called on the country\u2019s armed forces to respect \u201cthe decision of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we see today are lines of joy and hope,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez, 74, told reporters. \u201cWe will change hatred for love. We will change poverty for progress. We will change corruption for honesty. We will change goodbyes for reunions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An April poll by Caracas-based Delphos said about a quarter of Venezuelans were thinking about emigrating if Maduro wins Sunday. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Venezuelans who migrated over the past 11 years settled in Latin America and the Caribbean. In recent years, many began setting their sights on the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both campaigns have distinguished themselves not only for the political movements they represent but also on how they have addressed voters\u2019 hopes and fears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro\u2019s campaign rallies featured lively electronic merengue dancing as well as speeches attacking his opponents. But after he caught heat<\/strong> from leftist allies such as Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva for a comment about a \u201cbloodbath\u201d should he lose, Maduro recoiled. His son told the Spanish newspaper El Pais that the ruling party would peacefully hand over the presidency<\/strong> if it loses \u2014 a rare admission of vulnerability out of step with Maduro campaign\u2019s triumphalist tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, the rallies of Gonz\u00e1lez and Machado prompted people to cry and chant \u201c Freedom! Freedom!<\/strong> \u201d as the duo passed by. People handed the devout Catholics<\/strong> rosaries, walked along highways and went through military checkpoints to reach their events. Others video-called their relatives who have migrated to let them catch a glimpse of the candidates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do not want more Venezuelans leaving, and to those who have left I say that we will do everything possible to get them back here, and we will welcome them with open arms,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

source: AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venezuelans waited anxiously for the results of Sunday\u2019s\u00a0presidential electionthat could pave the way to an end to 25 years of single party rule, even as some polls appeared to remain open six hours after a deadline to close. President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, in seeking a third term, faced his toughest challenge yet from the unlikeliest of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[13369,11830,5522,7358,8713,1725,10387,1221,11583,7995,6369,6537,8129,1384,10823,10507,8440,9742,5241,8041,5257,5195,5196,4066,911,8660,6738,5455,7319,4028,9643,2264,11491,10598,5328,12298,6546,10954,2183,7407,11398,3114,3642,10342,6220,8138,11414,10303,65,5572,12704,5441,1761,6332,5396,9431,10227,7574,3805,10199,10219,11377,1776,10390,10313,5278,6200,10214,7540,13301,5713,5655,10480,1825,6741,12664,9262,5510,5857,2802,5704,10885,8033,10333,8869,10415,11660,36,594,10353],"class_list":["post-43429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-americas","tag-armed-forces","tag-arms","tag-bank","tag-birthday","tag-brazilian","tag-campaign","tag-cancer","tag-capital","tag-caribbean","tag-chaos","tag-church","tag-coffee","tag-corruption","tag-counting","tag-court","tag-crisis","tag-da","tag-died","tag-diplomat","tag-doctors","tag-dollar","tag-economy","tag-el","tag-election","tag-essential","tag-families","tag-family","tag-fern","tag-freedom","tag-fund","tag-government","tag-harris","tag-homes","tag-hospitals","tag-hunger","tag-inflation","tag-international","tag-international-monetary-fund","tag-jobs","tag-kamala","tag-kamala-harris","tag-landslide","tag-law","tag-love","tag-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","tag-maria-corina-machado","tag-medicine","tag-migration","tag-military","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-oil","tag-oil-prices","tag-online","tag-peace","tag-poverty","tag-powerhouse","tag-presidency","tag-president","tag-president-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","tag-president-nicolas-maduro","tag-presidential","tag-presidential-election","tag-prices","tag-professor","tag-quality","tag-race","tag-rates","tag-reserves","tag-results","tag-sanctions","tag-security","tag-spanish","tag-supreme-court","tag-teachers","tag-third-term","tag-united-states","tag-venezuela","tag-venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro","tag-vice-president","tag-vice-president-kamala-harris","tag-victory","tag-video","tag-wages","tag-water","tag-work","tag-working-class","tag-world","tag-who","tag-x"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43433,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43429\/revisions\/43433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}