Light turnout mars vote amid Venezuela boycott

CARACAS, Venezuela — Voting centers across Venezuela’s capital appeared largely empty during Sunday’s presidential election, and authorities kept polling stations open past the official closing time while government officials offered assurances that millions turned out to vote early.

Opposition leaders said the lifeless voting centers were evidence that Venezuelans heeded their call to abstain from voting in an election they contended was certain to be rigged in favor of socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

It was unclear when results might be made available.

Both Maduro and two anti-government candidates who broke with the opposition’s push to boycott the election urged voters late in the day to go to the polls.

“We’re not going to let a minority decide the destiny of this country,” said Javier Bertucci, a television evangelist who was considered a long-shot in the race.

The main anti-Maduro candidate was considered to be Henri Falcon, a onetime socialist stalwart who broke with the president.

While polls say Venezuelans blame Maduro for the country’s severe economic troubles, he was heavily favored to win thanks to a boycott of the election by his main rivals amid huge distrust of the nation’s electoral council, which is controlled by government loyalists.

Bertucci and Falcon both accused Venezuela’s electoral authorities Sunday of allowing what they called blatant violations, including political sloganeering near voting centers.

At numerous polling sites, socialist party supporters set up red tents nearby where they scanned government issued “Fatherland Cards” that voters said they hoped would bring them a cash bonus or even a free apartment.

Under Venezuela’s electoral law, any political activities must take place about 650 feet from voting centers.

National Electoral Council President Tibisay Lucena said officials had confirmed a handful of complaints and rectified any violations.

Maduro, setting an example for government supporters who he called on to vote early, cast his ballot in Caracas shortly after fireworks and loud speakers blasting a military hymn roused Venezuelans from sleep around 5 a.m. Sunday

He brushed back suggestions he was taking the country down an authoritarian path. “It’s offensive when they say the Venezuelan people are falling under dictatorship,” he said.

Maduro said that if he won the election, he would seek an understanding with his opponents on a way forward. “I’m going to stubbornly and obsessively insist in dialogue for peace.”

A 2010 study by the Brookings Institution covering 171 electoral boycotts around the world found that such maneuvers rarely succeeded in rendering elections illegitimate in the eyes of the world. The boycotting party usually emerged weaker and the incumbent empowered.