Star Metro - Venezuela awaits election results with bated breath

Maduro, 61, is seeking a third six-year term at the helm of the once wealthy petro-state where GDP dropped by 80 percent in a decade, pushing more than seven million of its 30 million citizens to emigrate.

In office since 2013, he is accused of locking up critics and harassing the opposition in a climate of rising authoritarianism.

Independent polls suggest Sunday's vote could bring an end to 25 years of "Chavismo," the populist movement founded by Maduro's socialist predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chavez.

But analysts say the president is unlikely to concede defeat to opposition challenger Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who is favored to win by a wide margin.

Gonzalez Urrutia replaced popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on the ticket after authorities loyal to Maduro excluded her from the race.

Machado, who campaigned far and wide for her proxy, urged voters late Sunday to keep "vigil" at their polling stations in the "decisive hours" of counting amid widespread fears of fraud.

"We're praying that they don't steal the election. They always have," voter Mercedes Henriquez, 68, told AFP in Caracas ahead of the vote.

Results are expected during the night.

Maduro, who had previously warned of a "bloodbath" if he loses, said Sunday he would "make sure" the final announcement of the regime-aligned CNE electoral authority is "defended."

- 'Prepared to defend' -

Rejecting opinion polls, the regime has relied on its own numbers to assert Maduro will defeat Gonzalez Urrutia, a little-known 74-year-old former diplomat.

Maduro counts on a loyal electoral apparatus, military leadership and state institutions in a system of well-established political patronage.

On Friday, a Venezuelan NGO said Caracas was holding 305 "political prisoners" and had arrested 135 people with links to the opposition campaign since January.

Maduro's campaign manager Jorge Rodriguez hinted at victory during the count Sunday, telling journalists with a big smile: "We cannot give results but we can show our faces," adding: "It was the victory of all."

Polls started closing at 6:00 pm (1000 GMT), 12 hours after they opened.

Gonzalez Urrutia said the opposition was "prepared to defend" the vote and trusted "our armed forces to respect the decision of our people."

He added there had been a "massive" voter turnout.

Ballots were cast on machines which print out paper receipts placed into a container. The electronic votes go directly to a centralized CNE database.

CNE chief Elvis Amoroso, who on Sunday described the opposition as "enemies of Venezuela," accused the movement of "conspiring" to announce incorrect results.

The opposition had deployed some 90,000 volunteer election monitors to polling stations countrywide.

- Watching 'very closely' -

Sunday's election is the product of a mediated deal reached last year between the government and opposition.

The agreement to hold the vote led the United States to temporarily ease sanctions imposed after Maduro's 2018 reelection, which was rejected as a sham by dozens of Western and Latin American countries.

But the sanctions were snapped back after Maduro reneged on agreed conditions.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the international community would be watching the election "very closely."

Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris said on X: "the will of the Venezuelan people must be respected."

Washington is keen for a return to stability in Venezuela -- an ally of Cuba, Russia and China that boasts the world's largest oil reserves but severely diminished production capacity.

Economic misery in the South American nation has been a major source of migration pressure on the US southern border.

Most Venezuelans live on just a few dollars a month, with the country's health care and education systems in disrepair and the population enduring biting shortages of electricity and fuel.

The government blames sanctions, but observers also point the finger at corruption and government inefficiency.

Machado said Sunday that if Maduro "grabs power," another "three, four, five million" Venezuelans will likely join the exodus.

"What's at stake here goes beyond our borders, beyond Venezuela," she said.

Concerns over the fairness of the vote were further stoked when Caracas blocked several international observers, including four Latin American ex-presidents, at the last minute.

The foreign ministers of seven Latin American nations called Sunday for the electoral process to "fully respect the popular will" of the Venezuelan people.

About 21 million Venezuelans are registered as voters, but only an estimated 17 million still in the country were eligible to cast ballots.

P.M.Martin--SMC