Latest news with #VenezuelaElection
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Venezuela ruling party keeps control of legislature amid opposition division
(Reuters) -Venezuela's ruling socialist party held its significant majority in the National Assembly in a Sunday election, winning nearly 83% of votes according to the electoral authority, in a contest boycotted by some opposition leaders amid deep division among parties opposed to the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Some of the country's major opposition leaders called for voters to abstain in protest of the official results of the July 2024 presidential election, which the opposition says it won but which authorities say was a Maduro victory. Sunday's legislative results will keep the ruling party in control of the attorney general's office and the top court, whose members are elected by lawmakers. Authorities did not give a total number of seats which will be held by each party, but named 40 lawmakers from various parties who have won seats. A coalition considered close to the ruling socialist party won 6.25% of the vote, while an opposition alliance won 5.17%, National Electoral Council (CNE) rector Carlos Quintero said in a declaration broadcast on state television. Turnout to choose 24 state governors and 285 lawmakers was 42.6% of 21 million eligible voters, Quintero said, similar to the turnout in the 2021 elections. Opposition candidates won just one governorship, in the state of Cojedes, west of the capital Caracas, down from the four won by opposition parties in 2021. Opposition leaders Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez called on supporters to abstain from Sunday's vote in protest at the official version of the 2024 election results and what they and rights groups say is a brutal crackdown on the opposition, including detentions this week. Machado, Gonzalez and their Vente Venezuela coalition posted photos throughout the day of what they said were empty polling stations around the country, even as the government extended voting hours, saying turnout was high. Meanwhile, another opposition faction headed by two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles and Zulia state governor Manuel Rosales, urged people to vote to avoid the opposition being cut out of all governance. Capriles was elected to the national assembly, while Rosales lost his governor's seat. NEW STATE The opposition and the international community, including the United States, have questioned the 2024 presidential result. Authorities have yet to share detailed tallies from that vote, blaming a cyber attack, while the opposition has published ballot box-level tallies which show a victory for its former candidate Gonzalez. Gonzalez fled to Spain in September, while Machado is in hiding in Venezuela. A governor was elected to represent the new state of Guayana Esequiba despite an order from the International Court of Justice that voting not take place in the region, which is the subject of a territorial dispute with neighboring Guyana. Guyana's parliament on Friday passed a resolution strongly condemning the Venezuelan government's "defiance" of the ICJ order, saying it was a threat to regional peace and stability. The Venezuelan government has said it does not recognize the court's authority in the case. Local Guyanese media reporting from several places in the disputed region said no voting was taking place there on Sunday. The U.S. has increased sanctions on Venezuela since the 2024 elections and the Trump administration has given oil major Chevron until May 27 to wind down its operations there. Maduro, in power since 2013, has always rejected the sanctions by the U.S. and others, calling them illegitimate and an "economic war."
Reuters
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Venezuela ruling party keeps control of legislature amid opposition division
May 25 (Reuters) - Venezuela's ruling socialist party held its significant majority in the National Assembly in a Sunday election, winning nearly 83% of votes, the electoral authority said, in a contest marked by deep division among parties opposed to the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Some of the country's major opposition leaders called for voters to abstain from the vote in protest of the official results of the July 2024 presidential election, which the opposition says it won but which authorities say was won by Maduro. Sunday's legislative results will keep the ruling party in control of the attorney general's office and the top court, whose members are elected by lawmakers. Turnout to choose 24 state governors and 285 lawmakers was 8.9 million, said National Electoral Council (CNE) rector Carlos Quintero, the same figure as in 2021 elections. Some 21 million voters were eligible. Opposition candidates won just one governorship, a fall from the four won by opposition parties in 2021.
CNN
25-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Venezuela held an election for an oil-rich region. The main problem is it belongs to Guyana
Venezuelans on Sunday for the first time elected a governor and other lawmakers for Essequibo, an oil-rich region that Venezuela has laid claim to even though it is widely recognized as being part of neighboring Guyana. Essequibo's 125,000 inhabitants, who account for more than 15% of the English-speaking country's population, did not take part in Sunday's election. The vote, which was widely criticized by Guyanese officials, instead saw Venezuelans pick a new governor, six deputies to the National Assembly of Venezuela, and seven to a regional legislative assembly. It is unclear how the officials, once elected, plan on running the territory, which Guyana governs. The election is the latest provocation in a long-running territory dispute between Venezuela and Guyana. It comes more than a year after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered the creation of a new state within the territory, which is roughly the size of Florida, called 'Guayana Esequiba,' following a referendum that saw Venezuelan voters approving the move. Guyana had called Venezuela's actions a step towards annexation and an 'existential' threat as the specter of armed conflict loomed over the region. Maduro first announced in January that a vote would be held for the region as part of a larger election for governors and lawmakers across the country. 'I call for freedom of conscience for the people and for the people to elect the best for the governorships of the 24 states,' Maduro said on Telegram ahead of Sunday's election, referring to Essequibo as the nation's 24th state. The vote has put Guyana on high alert, with its President Irfaan Ali on Saturday calling the poll 'scandalous, false, propagandistic (and) opportunistic.' Guyana is home to vast oil reserves and is on track to become the world's highest per capita oil producer. It, however, has an army estimated to be less than 5,000 soldiers, and lacks the hardware or manpower to face possible Venezuelan aggression. The country in the meantime has sought closer military cooperation with the United States amid the threats from Venezuela. On Sunday, the US State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs called the election a 'sham' on X. 'The United States rejects all attempts by Nicolas Maduro and his illegitimate regime to undermine Guyana's territorial integrity, including this latest sham election in the Essequibo region,' it wrote. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López pushed back against the criticism on Sunday, saying, 'We are supported by historical, legal, and moral grounds regarding that territory.' Venezuela has claimed Essequibo as its own for decades, arguing that it was within its borders during the Spanish colonial period. It has dismissed an 1899 ruling by international arbitrators that set the current boundaries when Guyana was still a British colony. Guyana has controlled the region since gaining independence in 1966. The recent discovery of vast offshore oil fields in the area has heightened the stakes in the dispute. In 2018, Guyana filed an application with the International Court of Justice to try to validate the 1899 decision. The case is still under review. Pending a final decision, the court ordered earlier this month that Venezuela refrain from holding elections in the territory. But Caracas has rejected the court's jurisdiction over the matter. On Saturday, the night before Venezuela's election and two days ahead of Guyana's Independence Day, Guyanese officials held a National Patriotic Concert in Essequibo to affirm their sovereignty over the land. The event drew thousands of people who were seen waving the Guyanese flag and wearing shirts that read: 'Essequibo is Guyana's.' 'Essequibo belongs to Guyana and we are going to do everything to ensure that Essequibo will forever be part of our 83,000 square miles,' President Ali told crowds of cheering supporters.
Asharq Al-Awsat
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Venezuelans Vote for Lawmakers, Governors as Opposition Calls for Election Boycott
Voters in Venezuela are choosing lawmakers, governors and other officials Sunday in polling being held against a backdrop of heightened government repression and opposition calls to boycott the election. The election is the first to allow broad voter participation since last year's presidential contest, which President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won despite credible evidence to the contrary. It is taking place two days after the government detained dozens of people, including a prominent opposition leader, and linked them to an alleged plot to hinder the vote. In the first hours after polls opened, members of the military outnumbered voters in some voting centers in the capital, Caracas. No lines formed outside the centers, including the country's largest — a stark contrast with the hundreds of people gathered around the same time for the July 28 presidential election, The AP news reported. 'I'm not going to vote," said truck driver Carlos León, 41, standing near a desolate polling station in Caracas. "I don't believe in the (electoral authority). I don't think they'll respect the vote. Nobody forgets what happened in the presidential elections. It's sad, but it's true.' Voter participation, in the eyes of the opposition, legitimizes Maduro's claim to power and his government's repressive apparatus, which after the July presidential election detained more than 2,000 people including protesters, poll workers, political activists and minors, to quash dissent. Meanwhile, the ruling party is already touting overwhelming victory across the country, just as it has done in previous regional elections regardless of opposition participation. A nationwide poll conducted between April 29 and May 4 by the Venezuela-based research firm Delphos showed that only 15.9% of voters expressed a high probability of voting Sunday. Of those, 74.2% said they would vote for the candidates of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela and its allies, while 13.8% said they would vote for contenders associated with two opposition leaders who are not boycotting the elections. 'I think it's absolutely despicable,' opposition operative Humberto Villalobos said Saturday referring to the election participation of some opposition members. 'We're facing the most brutal repression in recent years in the country. (The vote) is a comedy, a parody.' Villalobos was elections division chief for opposition leader Maria Corina Machado when he and five other government opponents sought refuge in March 2024 at a diplomatic compound in Venezuela's capital to avoid arrest. He spent more than a year there and on Saturday, along with four of the others, spoke publicly for the first time since they left the compound and arrived in the United States earlier this month. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met with the group Friday, has described their departure from the compound as an international rescue operation. That assertion has been challenged by Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who has said it was the result of a negotiation with the government. The ruling party-loyal National Electoral Council is overseeing Sunday's election for state legislators, 285 members of the unicameral National Assembly and all 24 governors, including the newly created governorship purportedly established to administer Essequibo, a region long under dispute between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana. In Maduro's Venezuela, Sunday's results will have little impact on people's lives because his highly centralized government controls practically everything from Caracas. The government also represses the opposition by, for instance, disqualifying a candidate after the election or appointing a ruling-party loyalist to oversee the elected offices held by opponents, rendering them powerless. Further, after the opposition won control of the National Assembly in 2015, Maduro created an election for members of a Constituent Assembly in 2017. That body, controlled by the ruling party, decreed itself superior to all other branches of government until it ceased to exist in 2020. Some voters who cast ballots on Sunday 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, said. 'But we must comply. We have to send the photo (saying), 'I'm here at the polling station now.''
New York Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Venezuela Is Holding an Election. In Another Country's Land.
On Sunday, Venezuela plans to hold an election for governor and legislators to represent Essequibo — a sparsely populated, oil-rich territory. But there's one problem. Essequibo is internationally recognized as part of neighboring Guyana, not Venezuela. Most countries and the 125,000 people who live in Essequibo all agree: It belongs to Guyana, a country of about 800,000, not Venezuela, a nation of roughly 28 million. In staging legislative and regional elections on Sunday, including in Essequibo, Venezuela's autocratic president, Nicolás Maduro, analysts say, is seeking to legitimize his rule abroad and also within his deeply dissatisfied nation, where the military's loyalty is reportedly fraying. Last year Mr. Maduro declared victory in a presidential election but did not provide any evidence to support his claim. Instead, tallies collected by election monitors showed that his opponent had won in a landslide. Many countries, including the United States, did not recognize Mr. Maduro as the winner. Of particular concern to Venezuela's government, according to analysts, were vote counts the opposition collected from military barracks showing that a large portion of the armed forces voted against Mr. Maduro. Mr. Maduro is using the vote in Essequibo to stir nationalistic sentiment and build support for his government, said Benigno Alarcón, the director of a research center at Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas, which conducts voter surveys. Claims to the Essequibo region are deeply ingrained among many Venezuelans who believe the land was historically theirs under Spanish colonial rule and do not consider a 19th-century agreement that ceded the area to Guyana as legitimate. The Essequibo election 'is a way of trying to unify the people and especially the armed forces against a common enemy,' Mr. Alarcón said. But most people who live in Essequibo speak English, identify culturally as Guyanese and say they want to remain part of Guyana — the only country most have ever known. Even under Spanish rule it was considered a remote outpost. Across Guyana, shops and cars are plastered with stickers proclaiming the country's ownership of Essequibo. In recent years, Mr. Maduro has ramped up claims to the region, which comprises about two-thirds of Guyana and includes enormous offshore oil blocks where Exxon Mobil is expanding production. In 2023, Mr. Maduro reignited the long-running dispute by holding a referendum asking voters whether his government should pursue its claim to Essequibo. The vote was seen as an effort to help divert attention from Venezuela's political and economic crises. The country's electoral authority said that 95 percent of voters had approved of making the claim, but observers said that turnout was actually low. Now Mr. Maduro is again stoking a geopolitical crisis as a way to shift the domestic conversation, analysts said. While most Venezuelans favor taking back the Essequibo, Mr. Alarcón said their trust in the government's intentions and capacity to do so was low. 'It is an issue that has been losing connection with the people, because a lot of time has passed,' he said. 'We have been discussing this for 100 years. Many people already feel that this is a very difficult issue to reverse.' On Election Day, Venezuelans along the border region with Guyana will choose among four candidates for governor, including the governing party's candidate, Neil Villamizar, a Navy admiral. Voters will also select eight legislative representatives from the region. It is unclear exactly how Venezuela plans to administer elections in a territory governed by a different country, and Venezuela's electoral authority has not provided clear information. 'It doesn't make any sense,' Mr. Alarcón said. Guyana's national security minister, Robeson Benn, has said that border security was tightened and that the authorities would arrest any Guyanese person supporting the election. The modern-day dispute over the Essequibo dates back to 1899, when a Paris tribunal determined the internationally recognized border. But many Venezuelans say the decision was null and void, because it involved a secret deal that Venezuela did not participate in. Longstanding tensions eased under former President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who largely abandoned the issue. But that was before an oil boom turned Guyana, long one of South America's poorest countries, into a global energy powerhouse and made its economy one of the fastest growing in the world. By contrast, Venezuela, which holds the world's largest oil reserves, was once buoyed by a thriving oil sector. But years of U.S. sanctions, mismanagement and infrastructural decay have left it in ruins. Unlike Mr. Chávez, Mr. Maduro must contend with a collapsed economy and widespread public discontent. In 2020, the dispute between the two countries over Essequibo was taken up by the United Nations' top court, the International Court of Justice, where it is still pending. This month, the court ordered Venezuela to refrain from electing officials to oversee the area. But Mr. Maduro has rejected the court's jurisdiction over the issue. In recent months, Guyana has reported several armed attacks against its soldiers along the Venezuelan border and denounced what it called an illegal incursion by a Venezuelan naval vessel into disputed waters where Exxon Mobil is developing a vast offshore oil field. Venezuela's government has denied those reports and accused the opposition of conspiring with the United States and Guyana to topple the Maduro government. As tensions mount, Guyana has ramped up military ties with the United States, which has a strong interest in protecting Exxon Mobil's multibillion-dollar investments in Guyana's oil reserves. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this month at a news conference in Georgetown, Guyana's capital, where he stood alongside Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, that there would be 'consequences' if Venezuela took military action against its neighbor. 'It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if they were ever to attack Guyana or attack Exxon Mobil,' Mr. Rubio said. Yet even Venezuela's opposition has seized on the territorial claims. María Corina Machado, the most prominent opposition leader, visited the area by canoe in 2013 to advance Venezuela's claim. It is possible that Mr. Maduro will try to negotiate some type of agreement with Guyana, said Phil Gunson, an analyst with International Crisis Group who has been based in Venezuela for more than two decades. 'It may be that what Maduro is really trying to do is to harass the Guyanese so much that they eventually decide to buy him off with some portion of the oil revenues or a portion of territory,' he said. 'And maybe Venezuela can then declare victory and the whole thing will calm down.' In Guyana last Sunday, every boat, vehicle, home, building and fence will be plastered with Guyanese flags said Vilma De Silva, an elected official in Essequibo. Venezuela is holding its election one day before Guyana's Independence Day. 'Our region is high on the alert,' she said 'We're here and we're not giving up any mountain. We're not giving up any tree. We're not giving up any river that belongs to the Essequibo. It's ours.'
