Venezuela votes in regional elections under international gaze

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela’s electoral system will be put to the test on Sunday when millions of voters across the South American country are expected to decide thousands of races in highly scrutinized regional elections.

The competition will be watched by more than 130 international monitors, mostly from the European Union, responding to a long-standing request from opponents of President Nicolás Maduro. It will be the first time in four years that the main opposition parties will take part in an election, a move that came amid the now suspended negotiations between the ruling party and its opponents.

More than 21 million Venezuelans are eligible to vote in more than 3,000 contests, including 23 governorships and 335 mayors. More than 70,000 candidates have registered for the races.

Maduro is not on the ballot. His term ends in 2025. But what is at stake is the legitimacy of the National Electoral Council, which has often been accused of having set conditions favorable to Maduro’s allies after years marked by their decisions to disqualify parties and some of the most popular opposition candidates.

International observers were deployed throughout Venezuela to observe electoral conditions such as fairness, access to media, campaign activities and the disqualification of candidates. They are expected to release a preliminary report early next week and a full review next year.

This is the first time in 15 years that EU observers have visited Venezuela. In previous elections, foreign observation was mainly carried out by multilateral and regional electoral organizations close to the Venezuelan executive.

Historically, voter turnout has been low for state and municipal elections. The abstention ceiling hovered around 70%.

Regardless of turnout, Sunday’s elections could mark the emergence of new opposition leaders, consolidate alliances and draw lines for Maduro’s opponents, who arrive in these elections decimated by internal fractures, often rooted in their frustration at not being able to strike at power the heirs of the late President Hugo Chávez.

“What we are going to see is a fight for second place because second place will symbolically mean which opposition has to be stopped the most, which will have a weight,” said Félix Seijas, director of the statistical research firm Delphos. He added that the results will show who ultimately “is the second force” in the country, and which segment of the opposition represents it.