High stakes as opposition rejoins fight

President Nicolas Maduro is not on the ballot for tomorrow’s elections across Venezuela, and the winners of the gubernatorial and local races won’t be well known beyond their country’s borders. But the regional elections could play a pivotal role in determining whether the country can find a way out of its years-long political stalemate.

The main opposition parties earlier this year agreed to participate in the local elections for the first time since 2017, a decision that came amid now-suspended negotiations between the government and its opponents.

Venezuelan authorities at the same time agreed to independent international observers, including the European Union, a longstanding demand of opponents of Maduro’s socialist government.

Now, electoral authorities and the system they oversee will be put to the test after years marked by their decisions to disqualify parties and some of the most popular opposition candidates.

The opposition parties grouped in the so-called ‘‘Unitary Platform’’ and led by Juan Guaido boycotted previous elections, including the re-election of Maduro as president in May 2018. But Guaido’s domestic and international support has since faded.

Tomorrow’s elections could see the emergence of new opposition leaders, consolidate alliances, and draw the lines to be followed by Maduro’s adversaries, who are going into the elections struggling with internal fractures, often rooted in their frustration at not being able to knock from power the heirs of the late Hugo Chavez.