Poll Tracker: Venezuela's 2024 Presidential Election
Poll Tracker: Venezuela's 2024 Presidential Election
Polls indicate a preference for opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia ahead of current leader Nicolás Maduro. But will the vote be fair?
This article was originally published on May 30, 2024 and has since been updated.
On July 28, Venezuelans will go to the polls to elect a president in an election that the country’s opposition, civil society, and international actors worry will not be free and fair.
Nicolás Maduro, who has served as president since 2013, is attempting to hold power for himself and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which Hugo Chávez founded.
Over the past decade, Maduro has attempted to carry on Chávez’s legacy. After all, the election will be on the late president’s birthday. But Maduro’s tenure has seen the dismantling of democratic institutions, tanking the economy and causing over 7 million Venezuelans to flee the country.
The opposition hopes to capitalize on widespread frustration to win in July. The main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform, is running Edmundo González Urrutia, a former diplomat and academic, after several of their prior candidates—including primary winner Maria Corina Machado—were disqualified. Eight other candidates are running for president. Who’s in the lead? Do voters plan to participate? AS/COA breaks down the numbers.
Nicólas Maduro keeps stacking the deck to win come July 28, but polls favor opposition candidate Edmundo González.
AS/COA covers 2024's elections in the Americas, from presidential to municipal votes.
