50% Turnout In Venezuela Vote On Guyana Border: Official

More than half of eligible Venezuelan voters had taken part in a referendum that yielded overwhelming support for laying claim to an oil-rich border region administered by neighbour Guyana, officials in Caracas said Monday

Caracas, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Dec, 2023) More than half of eligible Venezuelan voters had taken part in a referendum that yielded overwhelming support for laying claim to an oil-rich border region administered by neighbour Guyana, officials in Caracas said Monday.

More than 10.4 million out of 20.7 million eligible voters cast their ballots, said National Electoral Council president Elvis Amoroso, seeking to lay to rest initial doubts over the turnout.

The "yes" vote in Sunday's non-binding referendum was 95 percent, according to officials.

Venezuela has for decades laid claim to Essequibo, which makes up more than two-thirds of the territory of Guyana and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens.

Litigation is pending before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague over where the borders should lie.

Guyana, a former British and Dutch colony, insists the frontiers were determined by an arbitration panel in 1899.

But Venezuela -- which does not recognize the ICJ's jurisdiction in the matter -- claims the Essequibo River to the region's east forms a natural border and had historically been recognized as such.

The dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered oil in Essequibo in 2015.

- 'Overwhelming victory' -

Caracas called Sunday's referendum after Georgetown started auctioning off oil blocks in Essequibo in August.

The initial voter tally was met with suspicion by opposition politicians and analysts, who said it appeared voters' responses to each of five questions on the referendum may have been counted as separate ballots cast.

Low voter turnout was observed at polling stations in Caracas and other cities, further raising doubts.

The figure of 10.4 million announced Monday by Amoroso, accompanied by President Nicolas Maduro, is the highest turnout ever in a Venezuelan election.

Maduro has hailed an "overwhelming victory."

"We have taken the first steps of a new historic stage in the struggle for what belongs to us, to recover what the liberators left us," he said.

The referendum raised fears in Guyana, and around the region, about Venezuela's ultimate intentions for the contested territory.

Guyana had asked the ICJ to block the referendum.

On Friday, the court urged Caracas to take no action that might affect the disputed territory but did not grant Georgetown's request for urgent intervention.

Sunday's referendum asked citizens whether or not Venezuela should reject the 1899 arbitration decision as well as the ICJ's jurisdiction.

They were also asked whether or not Venezuelan citizenship should be granted to the people -- currently Guyanese -- of a new "Guyana Esequiba State."