Venezuelans vote as opposition challenges President Maduro’s grip on power
Al Jazeera
About 21 million people registered to vote, as reinvigorated opposition aims to end 25 years of socialist rule.
Polls have opened in Venezuela’s presidential election as incumbent Nicolas Maduro faces his toughest electoral battle since he came to power 11 years ago amid an ongoing economic crisis.
Nearly 21 million people are registered to vote, with a reinvigorated opposition trying to end the 25-year rule by the United Socialist Party with the promise to end the decadelong economic crisis that forced seven million people to emigrate.
Authorities set Sunday’s election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chavez, the revered leftist leader who died of cancer in 2013. Maduro, who took over after Chavez’s death, is seeking a third term in office.
Maduro, 61, is facing off against an opposition that has managed to line up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the governing party.
President Maduro’s main challenger is 74-year-old Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who was declared opposition bloc candidate after the main opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was banned from holding public office.
