The Latest: Venezuela chooses between another presidential term for Maduro or a big change

Venezuelans are choosing whether to give another six years to President Nicolás Maduro and extend the policies that have caused the world’s worst peacetime economic collapse, or whether to go with his last-minute opponent, retired diplomat Edmundo González.

Around 17 million people are eligible to vote.

González is representing a coalition of opposition parties after being selected in April as a stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, who was blocked by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice. For once, the opposition factions have managed to unite behind a single candidate.

Here's the latest:

Polls are open as Venezuelans make their choice

CARACAS, Venezuela — Polls have opened in Venezuela, where 17 million voters must choose between handing the increasingly authoritarian Nicolás Maduro a third presidential term or throwing their support behind an unknown newcomer promising to end 25 years of single-party rule.

Retired diplomat Edmundo González is the only opponent on the ballot who represents a real threat to Maduro’s hold on power.

The opposition boycotted the 2018 presidential election, allowing Maduro to coast to victory at a time of hyperinflation and widespread shortages. Although electoral conditions have barely improved, it is competing this time because it believes widespread anger with Maduro’s mismanagement of the economy will ensure his defeat. The last time it went to polls as a unified front, in the 2015 parliamentary elections, it trounced the ruling socialist party.