CARACAS – Venezuelans vote today in legislative elections set to tighten President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power and further weaken his United States-backed opposition rival Juan Guaido, who is leading a boycott of the polls he calls a fraud.
Victory will give Maduro's ruling Socialist Party control of an expanded 227-seat National Assembly, the only institution not yet in its hands.
“The day has come. We have been patient,” Maduro said yesterday at his Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas.
Today’s vote comes five years after the opposition won control of the National Assembly by a landslide.
Guaido, 37, called for a boycott on grounds that “free and fair” conditions for holding elections do not exist. He labeled today’s poll “a fraud”.
"Maduro's objective isn't even to gain legitimacy," Guaido said in an interview this week, adding that the goal was instead to simply wipe out all semblance of democracy.
Guaido and his allies plan a week-long plebiscite from tomorrow seeking public support to prolong the mandate of the current National Assembly until “free, verifiable and transparent” elections can be held.
However, the results will not be binding, as Maduro exercises control of the country’s institutions, including the Supreme Court and the powerful military. – AFP, December 6, 2020
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