Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro claimed victory on Monday in an internationally criticised election to pick a new assembly to rewrite the constitution, but the opposition vowed to keep protesting despite deadly clashes.<\/p>\n
Ten people were killed in a wave of bloodshed that swept Venezuela Sunday as Maduro defied an opposition boycott and international condemnation-including the threat of new US sanctions-to hold elections for a powerful new \u201cConstituent Assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Protesters attacked polling stations and barricaded streets around the country, drawing a bloody response from security forces, who opened fire with live ammunition in some cases.<\/p>\n
Despite the boycott and the unrest, the head of the National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena-one of 13 Maduro allies already hit by US sanctions-said there had been \u201cextraordinary turnout\u201d of more than eight million voters, 41.5 per cent of the electorate.<\/p>\n
In a speech to hundreds of supporters in central Caracas, Maduro hailed it as a win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a Constituent Assembly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the biggest vote the revolution has ever scored in its 18-year history,\u201d he said, referring to the year his late mentor, Hugo Chavez, came to power.<\/p>\n
The socialist president is gambling his four-year rule on the 545-member assembly, which will be empowered to dissolve the opposition-controlled congress and rewrite the constitution.<\/p>\n
But the unrest fueled fears that his insistence on convening the assembly-despite months of demonstrations-would only plunge the country deeper into chaos.<\/p>\n
There was blistering international condemnation of the vote, led by Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States condemns the elections… for the National Constituent Assembly, which is designed to replace the legitimately elected National Assembly and undermine the Venezuelan people\u2019s right to self-determination,\u201d US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It threatened further \u201cstrong and swift\u201d sanctions on Maduro\u2019s government.<\/p>\n
More protests loom<\/p>\n
The election was also condemned by the European Union, Canada and Latin American powers including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.<\/p>\n
The opposition said the vote was a fraud.<\/p>\n
Senior opposition leader Henrique Capriles called on Venezuelans to continue defying the deeply unpopular Maduro with new protests against the election and the \u201cmassacre\u201d he said accompanied it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not recognize this fraudulent process,\u201d he said, calling for nationwide marches Monday and a mass protest in Caracas Wednesday, the day the new assembly is due to be installed.<\/p>\n
Maduro has decreed a ban on protests during and after the vote, threatening prison terms of up to 10 years.<\/p>\n
Ten dead<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said 10 people were killed in violence around the vote, bringing the death toll in four months of protests to some 120 people.<\/p>\n
Those killed included a candidate for the new assembly, a regional opposition leader, two teenage protesters and a soldier in the western state of Tachira, which saw some of the worst violence.<\/p>\n
In eastern Caracas, seven police were wounded when an improvised explosive targeted their motorcycle convoy.<\/p>\n
National guard troops used armored vehicles, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters blocking roads in the capital.<\/p>\n
Soldiers also violently moved against protesters in the second city of Maracaibo, in the west, and Puerto Ordaz in the east.<\/p>\n
World protests<\/p>\n
Maduro, whose term is meant to end in 2019, describes the election as the most important in Venezuelan history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have come to vote to tell the gringos and the opposition that we want peace, not war, and that we support Maduro,\u201d said voter Ana Contreras.<\/p>\n
According to polling firm Datanalisis, more than 70 percent of Venezuelans oppose the idea of the new assembly-and 80 percent reject Maduro\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people are not going to give up the streets until this awful government goes,\u201d protester Carlos Zambrano, 54, told AFP in western Caracas.<\/p>\n
Venezuelans also protested in Miami, Madrid and various Latin American cities.<\/p>\n
The number of Venezuelans living abroad has soared as the once-booming oil producer has descended into a devastating economic crisis marked by shortages, runaway inflation, riots and looting.<\/p>\n
\u2018A sham\u2019<\/p>\n
The US envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, condemned the vote as a \u201csham\u201d-a word also used by Britain\u2019s junior foreign minister, Alan Duncan, and many experts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vote means the end of any trace of democratic rule. Maduro\u2019s blatant power grab removes any ambiguity about whether Venezuela is a democracy,\u201d said Michael Shifter, head of the Inter-American Dialogue research center.<\/p>\n
Latin America specialist Phil Gunson, senior analyst at Crisis Group, called the vote \u201cthe definitive break with what remains of representative democracy in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will accelerate the longer-term trend towards economic, social and political collapse unless those in a position to change course do so, and begin to negotiate a restoration of democracy and economic viability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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