Venezuelans vote amid boycott calls and fears of government repression
Venezuelans are casting their ballots in legislative and regional elections under the shadow of a heightened government crackdown and opposition leaders calling for a boycott.
Sunday's elections are the first to allow comprehensive voter participation since last year's disputed presidential vote, which President Nicolas Maduro claimed to have won despite contradictory evidence.
It is also taking place two days after the government detained dozens of people, including a prominent opposition leader, and accused them of being linked to an alleged plot to hinder the vote.
In the first hours after the polls opened, members of the military reportedly outnumbered voters in some voting centres in the capital, Caracas. No lines formed outside the polling stations, including the country's largest – a stark contrast with the hundreds of people gathered around the same time for the July 28 presidential election.
Many people appeared to have lost faith in the electoral process. 'I am not going to vote after they stole the elections last year. For what? I don't want to be disappointed again,' Caracas resident Paula Aranguren said.
In the eyes of the opposition, voter participation legitimises Maduro's claim to power and what they brand as his government's repressive apparatus.
After the presidential election, 25 people were reportedly killed and more than 2,000 people were detained – including protesters, poll workers, political activists and minors – to quash dissent. The government also issued arrest warrants against opposition leaders, levelling charges against them ranging from conspiracy to falsifying records.
Despite the risks, campaigning for some has remained a key form of resistance against the government.
'History is full of evidence that voting is an instrument towards democracy,' Henrique Capriles, a former opposition presidential candidate now running for a seat in the National Assembly, told Al Jazeera.
'I believe the way we stood for our rights last year kept alive the peaceful fight for our constitution because voting is what we have left to manifest our rejection of Maduro and his government,' Capriles said.
Meanwhile, the ruling party is touting an overwhelming victory across the country, just as it has done in previous regional elections.
A nationwide poll conducted from April 29 to May 4 by the Venezuela-based research firm Delphos showed only 15.9 percent of voters expressed a high probability of voting on Sunday.
Of those, 74.2 percent said they would vote for the candidates of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela and its allies while 13.8 percent said they would vote for contenders associated with two opposition leaders who are not boycotting the elections.
Maduro accuses the opposition of attempts to destabilise the country.
'The death throes of fascism have tried to bring in mercenaries, and today, we have already captured more than 50 mercenaries who came in to plant bombs or launch violent attacks in the country,' he told supporters before election day.
Political analysts said the chances that free and fair elections would take place are practically nonexistent.
'There won't be witnesses at the table, very few witnesses. Nobody wants to be a witness,' political analyst Benigno Alarcon told Al Jazeera, adding that low voter turnout, no understanding of who the candidates are and the lack of international observers are likely going to make the elections unfair.
Some voters who cast ballots on Sunday said they did so out of fear of losing their government jobs or food and other state-controlled benefits.
'Most of my friends aren't going to vote, not even a blank vote,' state employee Miguel Otero, 69, told The Associated Press news agency. 'But we must comply. We have to send the photo [showing] I'm here at the polling station now.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Mexico's president defends 13 percent turnout in judicial elections
NewsFeed Mexico's president defends 13 percent turnout in judicial elections Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum defended the country's first-of-its-kind judicial elections as a 'total success' despite just 13 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.
Al Jazeera
6 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Guatemala jails ex-paramilitaries for 40 years over rapes during civil war
A top Guatemalan court has sentenced three former paramilitaries to 40 years each in prison after they were found guilty of raping six Indigenous women between 1981 and 1983, one of the bloodiest periods of the Central American nation's civil war. The conviction and sentencing on Friday mark another significant step towards attaining justice for the Maya Achi Indigenous women, who were sexually abused by pro-government armed groups, during a period of extreme bloodshed between the military and left-wing rebels that left as many as 200,000 dead or missing. Former Civil Self-Defence Patrol members Pedro Sanchez, Simeon Enriquez and Felix Tum were found guilty of crimes against humanity for sexually assaulting six members of the Maya Achi group, Judge Maria Eugenia Castellanos said. 'The women recognised the perpetrators, they recognised the places where the events took place. They were victims of crimes against humanity,' she said, praising the women's bravery in coming to court to testify on repeated occasions. 'They are crimes of solitude that stigmatise the woman. It is not easy to speak of them,' the judge said. Indigenous lawyer Haydee Valey, who represented the women, said the sentence was 'historic' because it finally recognised the struggle of civil war survivors who had demanded justice for decades. Several Maya Achi women in the courtroom applauded at the end of the trial, where some dressed in traditional attire and others listened to the verdict through an interpreter. One of the victims, a 62-year-old woman, told the AFP news agency she was 'very happy' with the verdict. Pedro Sanchez, one of the three men convicted, told the court before the sentencing, 'I am innocent of what they are accusing me of.' But Judge Marling Mayela Gonzalez Arrivillaga, another member of the all-women, three-panel court, said there was no doubt about the women's testimony against the suspects. The convictions were second in the Maya Achi women's case against former military personnel and paramilitaries. The first trial, which took place in January 2022, saw five former paramilitaries sentenced to 30 years in prison. Advocacy group Impunity Watch said the case 'highlights how the Guatemalan army used sexual violence as a weapon of war against Indigenous women' during the civil conflict. In 2016, a Guatemalan court sentenced two former military officers for holding 15 women from the Q'eqchi community, who are also of Maya origin, as sex slaves. Both officers were sentenced to a combined 360 years in prison.
Al Jazeera
7 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Supreme Court allows Trump to revoke humanitarian parole for 530,000
The conservative-dominated United States Supreme Court has handed President Donald Trump another major victory, allowing his administration to revoke a temporary legal status from more than 500,000 immigrants as legal challenges continue in lower courts. Friday's decision applies to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan people who were granted humanitarian parole under the administration of former President Joe Biden. That parole status allowed them to enter the US due to emergencies or urgent humanitarian reasons, including instability, violence and political repression in their home countries. But the Supreme Court's ruling means that the beneficiaries of humanitarian parole could be targeted for deportation prior to a final ruling on whether the revocation of their immigration status is legal. The ruling by the top court, which is dominated six-to-three by conservatives, reverses a lower court's order temporarily halting the Trump administration from yanking humanitarian parole from Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans. The Supreme Court's decision was unsigned and did not provide reasoning. However, two liberal justices on the panel publicly dissented. The outcome 'undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending', Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote. She noted that some of the affected individuals had indicated in court filings that they would face grave harm if their humanitarian parole were cut short. Trump has targeted programmes like humanitarian parole as part of his efforts to limit immigration into the US. His administration has accused Biden of 'broad abuse' in his invocation of humanitarian parole: Trump has said Biden was lax on immigration and oversaw an 'invasion' of the US from abroad. Since taking office in January, Trump's administration has also indefinitely suspended applications for asylum and other forms of immigration relief. The plaintiffs in Friday's humanitarian parole case warned the Supreme Court they could face life-threatening conditions if they were not allowed to seek other avenues for immigration and were forced to leave the country. If they were deported 'to the same despotic and unstable countries from which they fled', lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that 'many will face serious risks of danger, persecution and even death'. Earlier in May, the Supreme Court also allowed Trump to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) — another temporary immigration pathway — for about 350,000 Venezuelans living in the US. TPS allows non-citizens to remain in the US while circumstances in their home countries remain unsafe or unstable. As with Friday's case, the Supreme Court's ruling on TPS allowed the Trump administration to move forward with removals while a legal challenge to Trump's policy plays out in lower courts. Biden had encouraged the use of programmes like TPS and humanitarian parole as alternatives to undocumented immigration into the US. Humanitarian parole, for instance, allowed recipients to legally live and work in the US for two years. Trump's efforts to end the programme would cut that timeframe short. The countries in question — Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti — have all experienced significant economic and political crises in recent years. In Venezuela, for instance, critics have accused President Nicolas Maduro of detaining and disappearing political dissidents and activists, and an economic collapse caused hyperinflation that put basic necessities beyond the means of many Venezuelans. Millions have fled the country in recent years. One of the other countries, Haiti, has been ravaged by a spike in gang violence since the assassination of President Jovenal Moise in 2021. Federal elections have not been held since, and gangs have used violence to fill the power vacuum. As much as 90 percent of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, has fallen under gang control, according to the United Nations, and thousands have been killed.
