Sawt Falasteen - Venezuela election boycott powers Maduro party triumph

With the opposition virtually absent from the ballot, Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela romped to victory in Sunday's vote for state governors and members of the National Assembly.

The party scooped 23 out of the 24 governorates and scored 82.68 percent of the votes cast for lists of National Assembly members, according to provisional results from the national electoral council (CNE).

Turnout was much lower than during the July 2024 presidential election, AFP journalists in several cities said.

The CNE, which is accused of being under Maduro's thumb, put the participation at a little over 42 percent.

The main opposition group, led by popular figurehead Maria Corina Machado, had urged voters to stay away to avoid legitimizing a vote she described as a "farce".

But a smaller opposition faction, led by two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, contested the election, arguing that previous boycotts had merely allowed Maduro to expand his grip on power.

On Monday, Capriles, who won an assembly seat, lamented the landslide win for "Chavismo" -- the populist socialist movement founded by Maduro's firebrand predecessor Hugo Chavez.

"This was a predictable outcome. Abstention won, and with it the regime and those who promoted it," Capriles wrote on X, thanking those opposition supporters "who went against the current" by casting a ballot.

Maduro's son, 35-year-old MP Nicolas Maduro Guerra, and First Lady Cilia Flores, were among those to retain their assembly seats.

- Dozens of arrests -

The run-up to the election was marked by mass arrests and a new crackdown on dissent, 10 months after a presidential election Maduro is widely accused of stealing.

More than 70 people were arrested last week on suspicion of planning to "sabotage" Sunday's vote.

Among those arrested last week was leading opposition member Juan Pablo Guanipa, held on charges of heading a "terrorist network" behind the alleged sabotage plot.

Venezuela's government frequently alleges foreign-backed, opposition-led initiatives to topple Maduro.

The vote included for the first time Essequibo, an oil-rich region controlled by neighboring Guyana but claimed by Caracas.

- 'Farce' -

Many opposition supporters said they could not countenance voting again after last year's showdown.

Electoral authorities quickly declared Maduro the winner of a third six-year term in July's, without releasing detailed results.

The opposition published its own tally from individual polling stations, showing a convincing win for its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

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

Machado said Sunday that the opposition boycott had exposed the election as a "grand farce" and called again, in vain, on the armed forces to turn against Maduro.

Writing on X, Gonzalez Urrutia, who went into exile in Spain late last year, said the boycott was a "silent but resounding declaration that the desire for change, dignity and a future remains intact."

- Vote in disputed region -

The 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.

Venezuela's elections for the National Assembly and for state governor of Essequibo sent alarm bells clanging internationally.

Guyana has administered the region for decades but Caracas has threatened to partially annex it -- a threat that Maduro repeated Sunday.

Admiral Neil Villamizar, a former navy commander from Maduro's party, was Sunday evening named governor of Essequibo.

Voting for Essequibo's officials took place in a micro-district specially created by Caracas in Venezuela's Bolivar state on the Guyanese border.

There were no polling stations in Essequibo itself.

T.Khatib--SF-PST