Political leader María Corina Machado cast her vote this Sunday in the elections in Venezuela after calling on the population to join her in the electoral process.
"Dear Venezuelans, today we are showing what we are made of," declared Machado through his Twitter account.
"I feel deeply proud to be Venezuelan," she stated in an emotional message, where she said her vote was "For my children, for yours, for my imprisoned friends, for every Venezuelan who was prevented from voting today; and also for you and for me."
The opposition figure arrived at her polling station with her mother, and upon entering the room, the guards of the chavista regime denied her greeting and turned their backs to create a barrier and prevent the media and Machado's press team from filming the moment.
However, the woman who has managed to unite the opposition overwhelmingly requested that her press team be allowed in, after which only five media outlets were authorized to enter the polling center, at the Instituto Colegio María de Bueno, on the main avenue of Los Chorros in downtown Caracas.
In a message after the voting, he said that Venezuelans are going to the polls in a civic manner, and that people started to vote from 9:00 PM on Saturday night, something unprecedented in Venezuela.
"In all the centers across the country, what we are seeing is an apotheosis of participation. I feel very proud to be Venezuelan and of these generations of ours who today, overcoming each and every obstacle, are realizing a dream, a struggle for freedom," said the opposition member, who toured several areas of the country during the event.
After clarifying that they have observers in all centers across the country, by 1:00 PM the participation rate was 42.1%, with more than nine million voters. Some municipalities, such as Seboruco in Táchira, already had 62 percent of voters who had cast their ballots by that time.
He added that there were 1,300 polling stations that tried to prevent opposition witnesses from doing their job. "But our witnesses stood firm, with the manual in hand, and managed to enter. They are the heroes of this process," he emphasized.
He said that the elections are being held in a civic and peaceful manner.
To those who take care of the tables, he said that they are not alone, and that the community is watching over them.
At the end of his message, he reminded that the vote counting in Venezuela is a public act, and that people can enter to see the count "paper by paper."
"No witness leaves their table without having a record in hand," he stated in reference to the witnesses and table coaches who are overseeing the election.
"Today freedom is a certainty, we are going to bring our children home," he stated.
"Join me to vote and let's show the world that our freedom is imminent," he had said earlier in a tweet, emphasizing the importance of this act as a manifestation of the desire for change and the recovery of freedoms in the country.
Machado has been a prominent figure in the Venezuelan opposition, known for her strong stance against Nicolás Maduro's regime.
Nicolás Maduro seeks to establish himself in power with a third term, although many polls show the opposition front winning, which has had to settle for presenting former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia as a candidate after María Corina Machado, the winner of the primaries, was disqualified by Maduro's government for 15 years from holding public office.
A total of 21,392,464 Venezuelans over 18 years old are eligible to vote in the presidential elections. However, it is estimated that at least 4.5 million voting-age Venezuelans are outside the country and will not be able to participate in the elections.
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