CARACAS — Venezuela government officials contended candidates for the ruling socialist party won a majority of the 23 governors’ offices up for grabs in Sunday’s regional elections.

Opposition leaders, immediately disputed that assertion.

Tibisay Lucena, president of the pro-government National Electoral Council, said opposition candidates won just five of 22 races where the results were considered irreversible.

Projections by independent pollsters had predicted the opposition would win a majority of the governorships for the first time in nearly 20 years of socialist rule.

The election was being watched closely as an indicator of how much support remains for President Nicolas Maduro and the socialist movement founded by his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

Support for the socialists has been ebbing because of high inflation and crippling food and medical shortages that continue to wreak havoc in Venezuelans’ daily lives.

Any success of the antigovernment candidates hinged on their ability to motivate disenchanted voters. Hundreds of Venezuelans lined up at some voting centers Sunday in Miranda, a state surrounding the nation’s capital, while other polling sites had very few.

‘‘Let your vote be a testament to what you want: continuity or change,’’ said Carlos Ocariz, the opposition’s candidate in Miranda. ‘‘There are two paths.’’

The election comes during one of the most turbulent years in recent Venezuelan history. Four months of antigovernment protests that began in April left at least 120 people dead.

In August, the new progovernment constitutional assembly ruling with virtually unlimited powers was installed after a vote that opposition leaders refused to participate in and that the National Electoral Council was accused of manipulating.

With few checks and balances remaining, a rising number of foreign leaders are calling Venezuela a dictatorship.

In a taped message released Sunday, Maduro urged Venezuelans to vote in what he said would be a demonstration that the nation maintains a ‘‘vigorous democracy.’’

‘‘They’ve said we are a dictatorship,’’ Maduro said, walking calmly while holding a cup of coffee. ‘‘No. We are a democratic people, rebellious, and with an egalitarian sensibility.’’

Opposition leaders scoffed at Maduro’s suggestion the election would be held up as proof that Venezuela remains a vibrant democracy.

‘‘We are fighting to recover our democracy,’’ said Henrique Capriles, one of the opposition’s most recognizable figures. ‘‘Democracy is not just voting.’’

Maduro has warned that new governors will have to take a loyalty oath submitting to the authority of the assembly that is rewriting the nation’s constitution. Opposition candidates have vowed not to submit themselves to an assembly they consider illegal.

The regional elections were originally scheduled to take place last December, but the National Electoral Council postponed the vote after polls showed socialist candidates were widely slated to lose. The vote was rescheduled for December, but delegates at the new constitutional assembly moved it to October.

Days before the vote, the electoral council announced it was moving more than 200 voting centers, predominantly in opposition strongholds. Council officials defended the relocations as a security measure in areas where violent protests took place in July.

The opposition accused the council of trying to suppress turnout among its base — a significant portion of which has grown disillusioned about the possibility of change and lost faith in leaders they perceive as disorganized and divided.

Opposition-arranged buses were transporting voters to the new sites Sunday — some of which were nearly an hour away. Other voters from middle-class neighborhoods were being sent to vote in poor communities where crime is high.

Susana Unda, a 57-year-old homemaker who voted for Ocariz, was using her truck to transport voters whose polling sites were relocated.

Tensions were high in Miranda as Ocariz walked down a crowded, narrow alley to cast his ballot at a voting center in the impoverished area of Petare.

Government supporters dressed in red and waving the socialist party flag threw plastic bottles at the opposition candidate and called him a ‘‘terrorist.’’ Soldiers stepped in to control the situation.