Sawt Falasteen - Maduro party eyes big win as Venezuela opposition boycotts vote

The main opposition group, led by popular figurehead Maria Corina Machado, had urged voters to stay away in protest at Maduro's disputed reelection last year.

Among the dozens arrested ahead of Sunday's vote was leading opposition member Juan Pablo Guanipa, who was being held on charges of heading a "terrorist network" planning to "sabotage" the elections.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello linked Guanipa, a former lawmaker, to a group of 50 people arrested earlier in the week on suspicion of being mercenaries in the pay of foreign powers.

Venezuela, which frequently alleges foreign-backed coup plots, said the suspects entered the country from Colombia and closed the busy border with its neighbor until after the election.

Tensions were high on Sunday, with more than 400,000 security agents deployed to monitor the vote.

Some 21 million voters were eligible to cast ballots for 285 members of the National Assembly and 24 governors -- including for the first time in Essequibo, an oil-rich region controlled by neighboring Guyana but claimed by Caracas.

Turnout was however projected to be just 16 percent, according to pollster Delphos, after the main opposition urged Venezuelans not to legitimize what they see as yet another sham election.

- 'Farce' -

Many in Venezuela lost any remaining faith they had in the electoral process after last July's presidential vote.

Electoral authorities quickly declared Maduro the winner without releasing detailed results.

The opposition however published its own tally from individual polling stations, showing a convincing win for candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who has since gone into exile abroad.

The crackdown on post-election protests left 28 dead, hundreds arrested, and cemented Venezuela's pariah status on the world stage.

Opposition leader Machado had slammed this weekend's vote as an "enormous farce that the regime is trying to stage to bury its defeat."

On Sunday, she published several pictures of deserted polling places on social media.

Polls opened at 6:00 am (1000 GMT), but by midday AFP journalists at polling stations in Caracas, San Cristobal and Barinas reported that just a handful of voters had turned out.

"It's an important process of citizen participation," said Samadi Romero, a 32-year-old university student who voted for Maduro's son for the National Assembly.

"I'm not going to vote because I voted (in the presidential election) and they stole the elections. So it's really a farce," said Candelaria Rojas Sierra, a 78-year-old retired civil servant in San Cristobal, on her way to mass to "pray for Venezuela."

- 'Fight the dictatorship' -

Polls officially close at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT).

A small opposition faction led by two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles had rejected the boycott call, arguing that previous voter stayaways had merely allowed Maduro to expand his grip on power.

"We must vote as an act of resistance, of struggle," said Capriles, who is running for the National Assembly.

A message on Guanipa's X account shortly after his arrest declared he had been "kidnapped by the forces of Nicolas Maduro's regime" but would continue the "long fight against the dictatorship."

- US blow to oil revenues -

Only a handful of countries, including longtime allies Russia and Cuba, have recognized Maduro as the country's rightful leader.

Sunday's election comes as the country's economy -- once the envy of Latin America, now in tatters after years of mismanagement and sanctions -- faces even further turmoil.

US President Donald Trump has revoked permission for oil giant Chevron to continue pumping Venezuelan crude, potentially depriving Maduro's administration of its last lifeline.

Particularly closely watched will be the elections for the National Assembly and for state governor of Essequibo.

Guyana has administered the region for decades but Caracas has threatened to partially annex it.

Y.AlMasri--SF-PST