Venezuela’s government is facing its toughest electoral test in decades. The outcome will either lead to a seismic shift in politics or extend the policies that caused the world’s worst peacetime economic collapse by six more years.
Whether it is President Nicolás Maduro who is chosen or his main opponent, former diplomat Edmundo González, the election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas.
For years, opposition politicians boycotted elections they saw as rigged, but as the government’s popularity has ebbed former rivals have banded together in an attempt to change the government at the ballot box.
What to know:
- Who is the opposition candidate? Edmundo González Urrutia, a former ambassador who’s never held public office. He has been campaigning with María Corina Machado, a former lawmaker who was banned from being the opposition candidate. They have promised an economy that will lure back the millions of Venezuelans who have left the country.
- Why is the current president having trouble? President Nicolás Maduro’s popularity has dwindled due to an economic crisis that resulted from a drop in oil prices, corruption and government mismanagement.
- Who will vote? More than 21 million Venezuelans are registered to vote, but the exodus of over 7.7 million people due to the prolonged crisis — including about 4 million voters — is expected to reduce the number of potential voters to about 17 million.
