Venezuelan Voters Face Pivotal Presidential Choice

Venezuela's 17 million-strong electorate must decide whether to grant Nicolás Maduro a third term or back Edmundo González, a newcomer aiming to end 25 years of single-party rule. The opposition boycotted the 2018 elections but is participating now due to widespread anger over Maduro's economic mismanagement.

Polls have opened in Venezuela, where 17 million voters must choose between handing the increasingly authoritarian Nicolás Maduro a third presidential term or throwing their support behind an unknown newcomer promising to end 25 years of single-party rule.

Retired diplomat Edmundo González is the only opponent on the ballot who represents a real threat to Maduro's hold on power. He emerged as an accidental candidate in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, who was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for office.

The opposition boycotted the 2018 presidential election, allowing Maduro to coast to victory at a time of hyperinflation and widespread shortages. Although electoral conditions have barely improved, it is competing this time because it believes widespread anger with Maduro's mismanagement of the economy will ensure his defeat. The last time it went to polls as a unified front, in the 2015 parliamentary elections, it trounced the ruling socialist party.