Posted on 07/28/2024 1:53:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans are voting Sunday in a presidential election whose outcome will either lead to a seismic shift in politics or extend by six more years the policies that caused the world’s worst peacetime economic collapse.
Whether it is President Nicolás Maduro who is chosen, or his main opponent, retired diplomat Edmundo González, the election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas. Government opponents and supporters alike have signaled their interest in joining the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already left their homes for opportunities abroad should Maduro win another term.
Polls opened at 6 a.m., but voters started lining up at some voting centers across the country much earlier, sharing water, coffee and snacks for several hours.
Alejandro Sulbarán nagged the first spot at his voting center by getting in line at 5 p.m. Saturday. He said he stood outside an elementary school in a hillside suburb of the capital, Caracas, for “the future of the country.”
“We are all here for the change we want," Sulbarán, 74, who runs a maintenance business, said as other voters nodded in agreement.
The number of eligible voters for this presidential election is estimated to be around 17 million. Polls close at 6 p.m., but it's not clear when the electoral authorities will release the first results.
Authorities set Sunday's election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chávez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushing wages, spurring hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families due to migration.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Edmundo González is representing a coalition of opposition parties after being selected in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, who was blocked by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice from running for any office for 15 years.
Machado, a former lawmaker, swept the opposition's October primary with over 90% of the vote. After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a college professor as her substitute on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering. That's when González, a political newcomer, was chosen.
Madurai losing is about as likely as Pelosi losing in San Francisco
If Maduro gets 6 more years, the Venezuelans deserve what they get.
Is Edmundo González their “conservative equivalent”?
Whatever his policies are, he’s gotten threats from the regime. So, he’s an improvement even if he’s not the Venezuelan equivalent to Trump.
What’s more likely a free and fair election in Venezuela or a free and fair election in a blue state?
This report is thin on the details. BBC has a better article on Gonzalez. Here is the link:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cevwzvxqw1vo
Thanks
When is the invasion of Guyana scheduled?
That was an interesting read, Venezuela sounds just like us. I hope this new guy wins. Venezuelans need it. And so do we. We aren’t the only ones under attack from the DS.
There is only one leader in the world who can reverse that.: Nicolas Maduro.
Under his watch, the average Venezuela lost 40 pounds in a year or two.
Maduro 2024: Make America Thin Again.
Betcha Venezuelans don’t have “Early Voting”, “Vote-By-Mail”, and the crooked BS “Motor Voter” ballot-box-stuffer-law. I think they still have voter ID requirements like most countries which at least pretend to give their citizens a choice.
I believe that Dominion machines are used in Venezuela.
“If Maduro gets 6 more years, the Venezuelans deserve what they get.”
Problem is, the loosing side will all emigrate to the US, so we will get what they deserve.
Yeah, I dont know these people pretend this is a fair election (or that we could have one in the US).
no room here, we don’t need any portion of 7.7 million more.
as if Maduro and the Commies would ever allow a free and fair election.
In the end, the Army will decide.
A Gonzalez win against Maduro would lead to the arrest and disappearance of Gonzalez and probably arrest and imprisonment or elimination of lots of opposition figures.
I think that’s where it started, IIRC.
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