Elections in Venezuela: the opposition celebrates a 'massive' boycott while Maduro coopts the Assembly

Dictatorship and dissidence are singing victory, although for very different reasons. While the former celebrates having kept 23 out of 24 governorships and having surpassed 80% of the votes for the National Assembly, the latter shows the high abstention rates as proof of the success of its boycott.

"We defeated this criminal regime again," said opposition leader María Corina Machado. "More than 85% of Venezuelans disobeyed this regime and said 'no'," she shared from underground, adding that "even public employees" had joined the boycott. "People did what they feared, they massively disobeyed them."

Machado also sent a message to the "military citizens": "The country demands them to fulfill their constitutional duty and be guarantors of the popular sovereignty, it is time to act, they have the obligation to do so." "It is time to open the way to transition."

The opposition stated that this Sunday's elections ratify those of Sunday, July 28, in which the regime of Nicolas Maduro claims to have obtained the reelection. The minutes of the polling stations compiled by the opposition show that, on the contrary, the winner was Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia with more than 60% of the votes.

Urrutia, whom Washington recognizes as president-elect, stated that the abstention had been "a silent but forceful declaration that the desire for change, dignity and the future is still intact."

A splinter of the opposition, led by veteran politician Henrique Capriles, did show up at the polls, winning one seat. "What is better, to have a voice and fight inside the Parliament or to leave in its entirety the Parliament to the Government?" the two-time presidential candidate argued.

For the ruling party, seats in the 2026–2031 National Assembly were won by Maduro’s wife and son, as well as the current president of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez. From the regime they brandish the participation figures (42.6%) of the National Electoral Council, a body servile to the power that supported the fraud of the past presidential elections. The opposition claims turnout was actually below 13%.

"Empty" polling stations and repression

The image of the polls was emptiness. "Empty streets, desolate centers, weariness and dignity," described Vente Venezuela leader Xiomara Sierra, sharing images of voting centers:

Another postcard of the day, as denounced by the National Union of Press Workers (SNTP), was the harassment of journalists, who were forbidden access to some polling stations. This harassment continues the repression of the last week, with the arrest of leaderJuan Pablo Guanipa and of more than 60 opponents in the last days alone.

Also as part of the preparations, the Government deployed more than 400,000 troops, restricted border crossings and suspended the air connection with Colombia.

First 'governor of Essequibo'

The election included for the first time the election of authorities for the Essequibo, an area in the hands of Guyana that Venezuela claims as its own. Chavista Neil Villamizar became the first governor of a newly created state in the area.

"Now we with a governor there with resources, budget and with all the support I am going to give him, we are going to recover the Guayana Esequiba for the people," promised Maduro, who in recent years stepped up his campaign to take the oil-rich territory.

"The United States rejects all attempts by Nicolás Maduro and his illegitimate regime to undermine Guyana's territorial integrity, including this latest electoral farce," wrote the US External Office for Venezuela, which days earlier had assured of the elections, "They will not be free, fair or transparent."

Just two days ago, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, gave a new show of support to the opposition by receiving five collaborators of Urrutia and Machado who managed to escape from the Argentine Embassy in Caracas after more than 400 days of siege by the regime's forces.