CARACAS, Venezuela — Voters in Venezuela were choosing lawmakers, governors and other officials Sunday in polling being held against a backdrop of heightened government repression and opposition calls to boycott the election.

The election is the first to allow broad voter participation since last year’s presidential contest, which President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won despite credible evidence to the contrary. It is taking place two days after the government detained dozens of people, including a prominent opposition leader, and linked them to an alleged plot to hinder the vote.

Members of the military outnumbered voters at many polling centers in the capital, Caracas, during the first half of election day, with no lines forming outside — a stark contrast with the enthusiasm of the July 28 presidential election, when some people queued overnight and lines stretched for blocks.

In a working-class neighborhood, the National Guard placed three armored personnel carriers, but by midday, the nearest voting center had no visible activity, and soldiers were looking at their cellphones.

“I’m not going to vote,” truck driver Carlos León, 41, said near a desolate polling station in downtown Caracas. “I don’t believe in the (electoral authority). I don’t think they’ll respect the vote. Nobody forgets what happened in the presidential elections. It’s sad, but it’s true.”

Voter participation, in the eyes of the opposition, legitimizes Maduro’s claim to power and his government’s repressive apparatus, which after the July presidential election detained more than 2,000 people including protesters, poll workers, political activists and minors, to quash dissent. Meanwhile, the ruling party is already touting overwhelming victory across the country, just as it has done in previous regional elections regardless of opposition participation.

A nationwide poll conducted from April 29 to May 4 by the Venezuela-based research firm Delphos showed that 15.9% of voters expressed a high probability of voting Sunday. Of those, 74.2% said they would vote for the candidates of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela and its allies, while 13.8% said they would vote for contenders associated with two opposition leaders who are not boycotting the elections.

“I think it’s absolutely despicable,” opposition operative Humberto Villalobos said Saturday, referring to the election participation of some opposition members. “We’re facing the most brutal repression in recent years in the country. (The vote) is a comedy, a parody.”

Villalobos was elections division chief for opposition leader Maria Corina Machado when he and five other government opponents sought refuge in March 2024 at a diplomatic compound in Caracas to avoid arrest. He spent more than a year there and on Saturday, along with four of the others, spoke publicly for the first time since they left the compound and arrived in the United States this month.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met with the group Friday, has described their departure from the compound as an international rescue operation. That assertion has been challenged by Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who has said it was the result of a negotiation with the government.

The ruling party-loyal National Electoral Council is overseeing Sunday’s election for state legislators, 285 members of the unicameral National Assembly and all 24 governors, including the newly created governorship purportedly established to administer Essequibo.

Most countries and the 125,000 people who live in Essequibo all agree: It belongs to neighboring Guyana, a country of 800,000, not Venezuela, a nation of 28 million.

Analysts say Maduro is seeking with this election to legitimize his rule abroad and within his deeply dissatisfied nation, where the military’s loyalty is reportedly fraying.

The New York Times contributed.