Amid empty streets, Venezuelans vote for all-powerful assembly

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Sun, 30 Jul 2017 - 01:26 GMT

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Sun, 30 Jul 2017 - 01:26 GMT

A man looks onto a room with a mural of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the Constituent Assembly election in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

A man looks onto a room with a mural of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the Constituent Assembly election in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

CARACAS/BARINAS - 30 July 2017: Streets were desolate early Sunday with barricades in some areas as Venezuelans began voting for a constitutional super-body expected to hand sweeping powers to ruling Socialist Party officials and potentially extend their unpopular rule.

President Nicolas Maduro, widely disliked for overseeing an economic collapse during his four years in office, has promised the assembly will restore peace after months of opposition protests during which more than 115 people have been killed.

Opposition parties are boycotting what they call a rigged election while their sympathizers plan demonstrations across the country during the day - raising the prospect of violent clashes with tens of thousands of troops deployed to safeguard the vote.

Critics say the assembly will allow Maduro to dissolve the opposition-run Congress, delay future elections and rewrite electoral rules to prevent the socialists from being voted out of power in the once-prosperous South American nation.

Opposition leaders have vowed to step up protests in the wake of Sunday's vote despite threats of a crackdown by Maduro's government using the new Assembly's sweeping powers.

"Even if they win today, this won't last long," said opposition supporter Berta Hernandez, a 60-year-old medic, in a wealthy Caracas district. "I'll continue on the streets because, not long from now, this will come to an end."

Amid government fears of low turnout, Venezuela's 2.8 million state employees were under huge pressure to vote, including threats of dismissal.

Workers at state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) received text messages asking them to send in their national identification number once they had voted, two sources said. They expressed fear the plan was to identify who had sat out the election.

The vote, which follows the postponement of regional elections and Maduro's repeated refusal to heed decisions by Congress, has brought global condemnation.

The United States, which is the largest market for the OPEC nation's oil, last week sanctioned 13 Socialist Party leaders, in part as a response to the election. President Donald Trump's administration has vowed additional economic measures if the vote takes place.

Neighboring Colombia says it will not recognize the results.

Polls suggest a large majority of Venezuelans oppose the assembly. The opposition says that more than 7 million voters - from a population of around 32 million - overwhelmingly rejected Maduro's proposal in an unofficial referendum it organized this month.

Voters will not have the choice of whether to proceed with the assembly, only to select its 545 members from more than 6,100 candidates representing a broad array of Socialist Party allies.

In the capital of Barinas, the home state of former President Hugo Chavez, turnout appeared low.

"I voted for Chavez but this isn't what he offered us. The country's in a bad state and getting worse," said construction worker Pedro Pena, 48, saying he just came out to see which of his neighbors voted.

ECONOMIC WAR

Maduro, who cast his ballot around 6 a.m. Sunday without fanfare, says he is the victim of right-wing governments around the world. He blames the country's economic malaise - from food and medicine shortages to triple-digit inflation - on an "economic war" by his adversaries.

Maduro says opposition protests have been driven by vandalism and arbitrary violence that will not be brought to an end without the constitutional assembly.

Some government adversaries are seeking to block the ballot.

In the western state of Tachira, a group of several hundred people on Saturday burned voting machines that had been set up in two schools.

Around 50 voting centers in that state will not be in operation because demonstrators destroyed voting materials or prevented them from being set up in the first place, according to an opposition representative.

Local media reported three deaths in the Andean region of the country in overnight violence though it was not immediately possible to confirm this.

The new, all-powerful assembly is due to sit within 72 hours of results being officially certified. Government leaders have suggested it will swiftly take measures against chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who has openly criticized the assembly vote, as well as the opposition congress.

"With the constitutional assembly, we're going to end the sabotage of the bourgeois (Congress)," Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello said during a campaign rally.

A significant portion of the assembly's seats are expected to go to well-known party leaders such as Cabello and Maduro's wife and son.

Two-thirds of the seats will be chosen by municipality, which critics say over-represents traditionally pro-government rural areas at the expense of opposition-dominated cities.

The remaining third of the seats are set aside for candidates from specific demographic groups, ranging from students to fishermen and farmers.

Amid government fears of low turnout, Venezuela's 2.8 million public employees are under pressure to participate.

Venezuela last rewrote its constitution in 1999 under late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, strengthening the executive and enshrining rights to healthcare and education. But unlike Maduro, Chavez first won voter approval for the idea via a referendum.

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