Maduro closes in on Venezuela poll triumph amid opposition boycott

CARACAS, Venezuela, December 7 ------ Venezuelans voted Sunday in legislative elections set to tighten President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power and further weaken his US-backed opposition rival Juan Guaido, who is leading a boycott of the polls he calls a fraud. The boycott by the main opposition parties meant there was no doubt of victory for Maduro’s ruling Socialist Party, giving it control of an expanded 227-seat National Assembly — the only institution not in its hands.

Maduro told reporters after voting in Caracas’ main military barracks that it was time to end the opposition’s domination of the Assembly responsible, he said, for “the plague of sanctions, cruelty, pain and suffering.” Turnout throughout the day was low, however, with many polling stations empty or with few people in line. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the polls as “a fraud and a sham” engineered by Maduro.

Washington, Guaido’s main ally, is leading pressure to oust Maduro with economic sanctions, including an oil embargo in force since April 2019. “The results announced by the illegitimate Maduro regime will not reflect the will of the Venezuelan people,” wrote Pompeo on Twitter. The Organization of American States said it will not recognize the result. Maduro called on the opposition “with one voice, to ask the new US government of Joe Biden to lift all the sanctions.”

Source: inquirer.net