CARACAS, Nov 22, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - Venezuelan opposition parties
participated in elections Sunday for the first time since 2017, voting for
governors and mayors in a litmus test for President Nicolas Maduro's
government amid international sanctions and economic crisis.

  With European Union observers returning to the country after a 15-year
absence, long queues of voters formed early at polling booths in the capital
Caracas -- a very different picture from elections for president in 2018 and
for parliament two years later that were boycotted by the opposition.

  "I feel that this time people are determined to vote," said Jose Rafael
Hernandez, a 58-year-old opposition supporter casting his ballot in the
capital, Caracas.

  "I would like all of us to vote, even if it is a form of protest," added
Daniel Rey, a 25-year-old doctor from San Cristobal near the Colombian
border.

  "It is the best way to show that we want change for the benefit of the
country."

  Leftist Maduro, whose deeply controversial presidency has seen the South
American nation targeted by punishing economic sanctions, has sought a
relaxation of the punitive measures through careful shows of goodwill and
democratic intent.

  With hundreds of millions of dollars of its funds frozen abroad, Venezuela
wants to be able to sell its petroleum more easily -- the United States is
historically its biggest customer -- and to end limits on imports.

  The government has made a calculated series of concessions, opening
negotiations with the opposition, and inviting election observers from the
EU, the United Nations and the US-based Carter Center to witness Sunday's
vote.

  The opposition, which for the past three years had boycotted elections they
said were neither free nor fair, agreed to take part after receiving
assurances from the government.

  Opposition leaders hope to raise their profile through participation, and
to gain support ahead of presidential elections set for 2024.

  Some 21 million of Venezuela's 30 million people are eligible to vote
Sunday for 23 state governors, 335 mayors as well as state and municipal
councils.

  But there seems little doubt about the outcome, expected in the early
morning hours of Monday -- experts predict the Chavist movement that Maduro
has led since the death of President Hugo Chavez in 2013 should easily
prevail over a divided opposition.

  - 'In peace' -

  Polling stations closed at 6:00 pm local time (2200 GMT), but those already
in line were allowed to stay until they had cast their ballot -- sparking
claims of fraud from the opposition.

  "Maduro and his party ordered the CNE (electoral body) not to close the
polling stations when there were no voters... They are going to put votes
that do not exist," Tweeted opposition figure Henrique Capriles, who has
twice come second in presidential elections.

  The head of the 130-member EU observer mission, Isabel Santos, said during
the day that the election was proceeding "calmly," and defense minister
Vladimir Padrino told public television the election had taken place "in
peace".

  One person was shot dead near a voting center in the country's east, but
the authorities said it was not related to the election.

  On the eve of the vote, Maduro had warned that the EU had no authority to
give a "verdict" on the process in a country that is prickly about its
"sovereignty," often accusing the United States of interventionism.

  "All international escorts must respect the laws of Venezuela, and must
strictly respect the regulations of the electoral power that invited them,"
the president said.

  The United States is among dozens of countries which do not recognize
Maduro's presidency after the impugned elections of 2018 that opposition
leader Juan Guaido claimed to have won.

  Guaido has said the opposition must "unify the struggle" but indicated he
would not vote as "it is certain that Maduro is, and will continue to be,
illegitimate."

  Venezuela, a once-rich oil producer, is battling its eighth year of
recession and hyperinflation that reached nearly 3,000 percent in 2020 and
more than 9,500 percent the year before, according to central bank figures.

  Three in four Venezuelans live in extreme poverty, according to a recent
study, with the economic crisis made worse by US sanctions and the
coronavirus pandemic.

  Millions have left the country in recent years to try their luck elsewhere.