CARACAS – Venezuelans still reeling from the outcome of last year’s presidential election were not responding Sunday to government calls to get out and vote for lawmakers, governors and other officials. That left voting centers practically empty at times and put officials on the defensive.

The election, which the political opposition urged people to boycott, is the first to allow broad voter participation since last year’s presidential contest, which President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won despite credible evidence to the contrary. It’s taking place two days after the government detained dozens of people, including a prominent opposition leader, and linked them to an alleged plot to hinder the vote.

Members of the military throughout the day outnumbered voters at many polling centers in the capital, Caracas, where no lines formed outside in stark contrast with the enthusiasm of the July 28 presidential election, when some people waited in line overnight and the lines stretched for blocks.

“I’m not going to vote,” said truck driver Carlos León, 41, standing near a desolate polling station in downtown Caracas. “I don’t believe in the (electoral authority). I don’t think they’ll respect the vote. Nobody forgets what happened in the presidential elections. It’s sad, but it’s true.”

Voter participation, in the eyes of the opposition, legitimizes Maduro’s claim to power and his government’s repressive apparatus, which after the July presidential election detained more than 2,000 people including protesters, poll workers, political activists and minors, to quash dissent. Meanwhile, the ruling party was already touting overwhelming victory across the country, just as it has done in previous regional elections regardless of opposition participation.

A nationwide poll conducted between April 29 and May 4 by the Venezuela-based research firm Delphos showed that only 15.9% of voters expressed a high probability of voting Sunday. Of those, 74.2% said they would vote for the candidates of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela and its allies, while 13.8% said they would vote for contenders associated with two opposition leaders who are not boycotting the elections.

“I think it’s absolutely despicable,” opposition operative Humberto Villalobos said Saturday, referring to the election participation of some opposition members. “We’re facing the most brutal repression in recent years in the country. (The vote) is a comedy, a parody.”

Villalobos was elections division chief for opposition leader Maria Corina Machado when he and five other government opponents sought refuge in March 2024 at a diplomatic compound in Caracas to avoid arrest. He spent more than a year there and on Saturday, along with four of the others, spoke publicly for the first time since they left the compound surreptitiously and arrived in the United States earlier this month.

Machado’s close ally, Juan Pablo Guanipa, was among 70 people detained Friday for alleged anti-government activities. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello linked Guanipa to an alleged “terrorist group” plotting to disturb Sunday’s vote.

Guanipa’s brother, Tomás, rejected the accusation and said the arrest was punishment for “thinking differently” from the government.

All-controlling ruling party

The ruling party-loyal National Electoral Council oversaw Sunday’s election for state legislators, 285 members of the unicameral National Assembly and all 24 governors, including the newly created governorship purportedly established to administer Essequibo, a region long under dispute between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana.

After voting Sunday, Maduro said the electronic polling process is “very fast and very easy,” seemingly justifying the lack of lines at polling centers. Earlier, his ruling-party ally, Gov. Freddy Bernal, explained the apparent low turnout similarly.

“We won’t see long lines because the process is very fast,” Bernal, who is seeking reelection as governor of the state of Táchira, told state television.

Maduro also criticized opposition factions who asked people not to vote.

“What did they win? They lost everything,” Maduro said three times regarding previous opposition boycotts. “They — the ones running that campaign — are nothing, and Venezuela continues its course.”

The ruling party controls 19 governorships and more than 90% of the National Assembly seats.

But in Maduro’s Venezuela, regional elected officials, regardless of party affiliation, have limited impact on people’s lives because his highly centralized government controls practically everything from Caracas. The government also represses the opposition by, for instance, disqualifying a candidate after the election or appointing a ruling-party loyalist to oversee the elected offices held by opponents, rendering them powerless.

Further, after the opposition won control of the National Assembly in 2015, Maduro created an election for members of a Constituent Assembly in 2017. That body, controlled by the ruling party, decreed itself superior to all other branches of government until it ceased to exist in 2020.

State-controlled benefits

In a working-class neighborhood, the National Guard placed three armored personnel carriers, but by midday, the nearest voting center had no visible activity and soldiers were looking at their cellphones while they sheltered from the sun.

Meanwhile, voters at a polling place in downtown Caracas said they cast ballots out of fear of losing their government jobs or food and other state-controlled benefits. And in an opposition stronghold, some ignored the boycott calls believing that voting is their civic duty, while others saw the election as a chance to keep their local government under opposition control.

“I’m defending my municipality,” said Edith, the owner of a bankrupt family business who declined to give her last name out of fear of government reprisals. “I’m still angry with what happened in July, but I have to defend it.”