Polls are starting to close in Venezuela’s presidential election, in which the governing socialist PSUV party’s Nicolás Maduro is seeking a third term in office.
Polling stations were scheduled to shut at 18:00 local time (22:00 GMT), but they have to remain open if people are still queuing to cast their vote.
Mr Maduro’s main challenger is Edmundo González, a former diplomat who has the backing of a coalition of opposition parties.
The opposition called on supporters to keep vigil at their polling stations to verify the counting process in the “decisive hours” after closing, amid widespread fears the PSUV would attempt to steal the vote.
Opinion polls have suggested Mr González has a wide lead over the incumbent, but as Mr Maduro’s 2018 re-election was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair, there is concern that the result of this election could be tampered with, should it not go Mr Maduro’s way.
Opponents of the president have overcome many hurdles in the run-up to the election, not least the fact that their chosen candidate, María Corina Machado, was banned from running for office.
Ms Machado, who has remained at the forefront of the opposition campaign, reminded voters that the counting process was legally meant to be public.
She called on “all Venezuelans to remain at their polling stations… keeping vigil”.
The PSUV has been in power in Venezuela for the past 25 years – first under the late Hugo Chávez, then under his hand-picked successor, Mr Maduro.
Since he assumed the presidency in 2013, Mr Maduro has presided over an economic collapse, during which GDP shrank by 70% and more than 7.7 million people fled the country in search of a better life.
