Participation in Venezuela’s controversial presidential election on Sunday was at 32.3 percent by 6 p.m. as most polling stations began closing, according to an election board source.
Turnout at Venezuela’s last presidential election in 2015 was 80 percent, but the mainstream opposition called for a boycott of Sunday’s vote, alleging it was rigged in favor of socialist leader Nicolas Maduro’s re-election, a Reuters report stated.
The winning candidate will begin a six-year term as president in January 2019.
Maduro, the widely unpopular political heir to the late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, has promised an “economic revolution” if re-elected, having presided over an implosion of Venezuela’s economy since taking office in 2013.
