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Caracas, Venezuela
Venezuelans head to the polls on Sunday (December 6) in parliamentary elections that will see the ruling Socialist Party and its allies run virtually uncontested.
President Nicolas Maduroâs camp is poised to gain control of the National Assembly, the only institution not yet in its hands, while opposition leader Juan Guaido earlier led the boycott of the polls.
"I know that we are going to have a great triumph. I know it!" a confident Maduro told an election rally this week.
"We are going to solve the problems we have with the new National Assembly. The opposition, the extremist right, has no plan for the country," added the Venezuelan president, whose 30-year-old son is running for a seat.
Recognised for more than a year as interim president by dozens of countries -- including his chief backer, the United States -- Guaido has dismissed the December 6 polls as "a fraud" designed to strengthen Maduro's grip on power.
"It would be difficult to call that process an election," the 37-year-old opposition leader said.
The poll boycott leaves the way open for Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) to win a majority in the National Assembly, the only institution still in opposition hands.
Guaido and the mainstream opposition parties have instead organised an alternative five-day referendum next week to garner popular support for a plan to prolong the current Assembly.
Guaido is speaker of the Assembly, a position from which he proclaimed himself interim president in January 2019. However, his popularity has dropped dramatically since then.
Without the Assembly, Guaido would lose formal legitimacy, leaving governments that have backed him - not least Biden's incoming administration - in a difficult position.
Meanwhile, Guaido hopes the new US president, Joe Biden, will ratify existing US sanctions and fine-tune a more effective Maduro policy with the European Union and other Latin American countries.
Outgoing US President Donald Trump's sanctions strategy included a veiled threat of military force to topple Maduro, a hope that the most radical Venezuelans clung to, later blaming Guaido when it did not materialise.
Guaido distanced himself from any further talk of military intervention.
(with inputs)