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Venezuela's ruling Socialist Party has vowed that a newly elected legislative super-body will begin passing laws quickly after a vote that was boycotted by the opposition and slammed by foreign governments as an affront to democracy.

CARACAS: Anti-government demonstrators barricaded streets on Monday and promised a fresh wave of protests against President Nicolas Maduro, after an election a day earlier giving the Venezuelan leader and his ruling Socialist Party sweeping powers.

At least 10 people were killed on Sunday in protests against the unpopular Maduro, who insists the country's newly elected constituent assembly will bring peace after four months of protests that have killed more than 120 people.

Opposition parties sat out the election, saying it was rigged as part of a naked power grab by Maduro, leaving all 545 of the assembly's seats for the socialists and their allies.

Protesters set up barricades along main avenues of Caracas as they denounced the advent of dictatorship.

Construction worker Leonardo Valbuena, 35, leaning on a rusting barrel next to a cable was stretched across a usually busy street, said he was protesting because the economic crisis had left him unable to find work.

"I've got four kids - four! How am I supposed to feed them?" said Valbuena, adding that the official figure of 8 million voters in Sunday's election was inflated. The opposition put the figure at around 2.5 million.

"Now that they've got their assembly they're going to come for us. But we'll die fighting them."

Countries across the Americas, as well as the European Union, denounced the creation of the assembly, which will have the power to rewrite the constitution.

The United States - the top market for the OPEC nation's oil - called the vote a sham, and officials in Washington said they were preparing oil-sector sanctions.

Opposition leaders say the election was designed to tighten Maduro's hold on power amid growing anger over an economic crisis marked by rising poverty levels, the world's highest inflation rate and chronic food shortages.

Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who has been harshly critical of Maduro this year, said the creation of the constituent assembly was putting "absolute power" in the hands of the Socialist Party leadership.

"We are in the presence of dictatorial ambitions," Ortega told a news conference.

Government officials have for weeks suggested that she will be removed by the new assembly, which will have the power to dissolve state institutions such as the opposition-run Congress and dismiss state officials.

Maduro on Monday night called for a "restructuring" of the chief prosecutor's office.

"Nobody recognises that (constituent) assembly, it's the epitome of nothing," said legislator Juan Requesens in an internet broadcast as he entered Congress for a meeting with opposition deputies.

Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello on Sunday hinted that the constituent assembly would meet in the same legislative palace. The socialists had controlled Congress until the opposition's landslide victory in 2015.

"They kick us out the door we come back through the window," he told a news conference.

Requesens, however, warned of a struggle if government forces wanted to seize the premises of the legislature.

"If they want to take over Congress with their armoured vehicles, with their paramilitary groups, then what's waiting for them here is a fight," he said, referring to armed pro-government gangs who recently burst into Congress and beat legislators with lead pipes, leaving several of them bloodied and injured.

Latin American nations from Argentina to Mexico, which are historically wary of siding with Washington in hemispheric disputes, sharply condemned the vote, leaving Venezuela on track to become a pariah state.

The EU said the constituent assembly could not be part of the negotiated solution to the country's crisis, noting it was elected under doubtful and often violent circumstances..

The opposition organised an unofficial referendum over Maduro's plan earlier in July, when more than 7 million voters overwhelmingly rejected his constituent assembly and voted in favour of early presidential elections.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolas Maduro brushed off new U.S. sanctions on him and condemnation at home and abroad of the newly chosen constitutional assembly, saying the vote has given him a popular mandate to radically overall Venezuela’s political system.

Maduro said Monday evening he had no intention of deviating from his plans to rewrite the constitution and go after a string of enemies, from independent Venezuelan news channels to gunmen he claimed were sent by neighboring Colombia to disrupt the vote as part of an international conspiracy led by the man he calls “Emperor Donald Trump.”

“They don’t intimidate me. The threats and sanctions of the empire don’t intimidate me for a moment,” Maduro said on national television. “I don’t listen to orders from the empire, not now or ever … Bring on more sanctions, Donald Trump.”

A few hours earlier, Washington added Maduro to a steadily growing list of high-ranking Venezuelan officials targeted by financial sanctions, escalating a tactic that has so far failed to alter his socialist government’s behavior. For now, the Trump administration did not deliver on threats to sanction Venezuela’s oil industry, which could undermine Maduro’s government but raise U.S. gas prices and deepen the humanitarian crisis here.

The sanctions came after electoral authorities said more than 8 million people voted Sunday to create a constitutional assembly endowing Maduro’s ruling party with virtually unlimited powers — a turnout doubted by independent analysts while the election was labeled illegitimate by leaders across the Americans and Europe.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council said turnout in Sunday’s vote was 41.53 percent, or 8,089,320 people. The result would mean the ruling party won more support than it had in any national election since 2013, despite a cratering economy, spiraling inflation, shortages of medicine and malnutrition. Opinion polls had said some 85 percent of Venezuelans disapproved of the constitutional assembly and similar numbers disapproved of Maduro’s overall performance.

Opposition leaders estimated the real turnout at less than half the government’s claim in a vote watched by government-allied observers but no internationally recognized poll monitors.

An exit poll based on surveys from 110 voting centers by New York investment bank Torino Capital and a Venezuela public opinion company estimated 3.6 million people voted, or about 18.5 percent of registered voters.

The electoral council’s vote counts in the past had been seen as reliable and generally accurate, but the widely mocked announcement appeared certain to escalate the polarization and political conflict paralyzing the country.

“If it wasn’t a tragedy … if it didn’t mean more crisis, the electoral council’s number would almost make you laugh,” opposition leader Freddy Guevara said on Twitter. Maduro has threatened that one of the constitutional assembly’s first acts would be jailing Guevara for inciting violence.

The constituent assembly will have the task of rewriting the country’s constitution and will have powers above and beyond other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

Maduro has said the new assembly will begin to govern within a week. Among other measures, he said he would use the assembly’s powers to bar opposition candidates from running in gubernatorial elections in December unless they sit with his party to negotiate an end to hostilities that have generated four months of protests that have killed at least 120 and wounded nearly 2,000.

Along with the U.S., the European Union and nations including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain and Britain criticized Sunday’s vote. Maduro said he had received congratulations from the governments of Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua, among others.

The monetary impact of the new U.S. sanctions wasn’t immediately clear as Maduro’s holdings in U.S. jurisdictions, if he has any, weren’t publicized. However, imposing sanctions on a head of state is rare and can be symbolically powerful, leading other countries to similarly shun such a leader. For example, the U.S. has had sanctions against Syria’s President Bashar Assad since 2011. Other heads of state currently subject to U.S. sanctions include Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Maduro called the constitutional assembly in May after a month of protests against his government, which has overseen Venezuela’s descent into a devastating crisis during its four years in power. Due to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement, Venezuela’s inflation and homicide rates are among the world’s highest, and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves.

The president of the opposition-led National Assembly, Julio Borges, told Venezuelan news channel Globovision on Monday that Maduro’s foes would continue protesting until they won free elections and a change of government.

He said Sunday’s vote gave Maduro “less legitimacy, less credibility, less popular support and less ability to govern.”

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Christine Armario in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.</s>related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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Venezuelans on Sunday vote for a constitutional super-body expected to hand sweeping new powers to ruling Socialist Party officials and potentially extend their unpopular rule in the convulsed OPEC nation.

CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela,: Protesters clashed with security forces on Sunday as Venezuelans broadly boycotted an election for a constitutional super-body that unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro vowed would begin a "new era of combat" in the crisis-stricken nation.

Maduro, widely disliked for overseeing an economic collapse during four years in office, has pressed ahead with the vote to create the all-powerful assembly despite the threat of U.S. sanctions and months of opposition protests in which more than 115 people have been killed.

Critics say the assembly will allow Maduro to dissolve the opposition-run Congress, delay future elections and rewrite electoral rules to prevent the socialists from being voted out of power in the once-thriving OPEC nation.

Opposition parties are sitting out what they call a rigged election, leaving streets deserted and polling stations largely empty and dealing a blow to the legitimacy of the vote.

Anti-Maduro activists erected barricades on roads around the South American country and scuffles broke out with security forces who moved in quickly to disperse hooded demonstrators. In what could be the spread of deadlier tactics, a bomb exploded in Caracas and injured a group of police officers.

The opposition has vowed to redouble its resistance and U.S. President Donald Trump has promised broader economic sanctions against Venezuela after the vote, suggesting the oil-rich nation's crisis is set to escalate.

"Even if they win today, this won't last long," said opposition supporter Berta Hernandez, a 60-year-old doctor, in a wealthier Caracas district. "I'll continue on the streets because, not long from now, this will come to an end."

Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader narrowly elected in 2013, has accused right-wing governments of trying to sabotage "21st century Socialism."

"The 'emperor' Donald Trump wanted to halt the Venezuelan people's right to vote," said Maduro, as he rapidly voted at 6 a.m. in a low-income area of the capital Caracas that has turned on the government.

"A new era of combat will begin. We're going all out with this constituent assembly," he added.

But with polls showing some 70 percent of Venezuelans oppose the vote, the country's 2.8 million state employees are under huge pressure to participate - with some two dozen sources telling Reuters they were being threatened with dismissal.

The opposition said participation was at a paltry 7 percent by mid-afternoon.

Fuelling anger against Maduro is an unprecedented economic meltdown in the country of some 30 million people, which was once a magnet for European migrants thanks to an oil boom that was the envy of Latin America.

But after nearly two decades of Socialist Party rule, currency and price controls have asphyxiated businesses.

Millions of Venezuelans now struggle to eat three times a day due to product shortages and runaway inflation that has put basics like rice or flour out of reach.

"Sometimes I take bread from my mouth and give it to my two kids," said pharmacy employee Trina Sanchez, 28, as she waited for a bus to work. "This is a farce. I want to slap Maduro."

To show the massive scale of public anger, the opposition earlier this month organised an unofficial referendum over Maduro's plan.

A strong turnout of more than 7 million voters overwhelmingly rejected the constituent assembly and voted in favour of early elections.

But democratic pathways to political change have been systematically blocked. The opposition's bid last year to hold a recall referendum against Maduro was nixed, regional elections have been postponed and the president has repeatedly ignored Congress.

As global condemnation mounted, the United States last week sanctioned 13 Socialist Party leaders, in part as a response to the election, and neighbouring Colombia has said it will not recognise the results of Sunday's vote.

In Sunday's gravest incident, a bomb went off as a group of police officers on motorbikes sped past Caracas' Altamira Plaza, an opposition stronghold. Several officers suffered burn injuries, according to a Reuters witness.

Clashes were also reported in the volatile Andean state of Tachira, where witnesses told Reuters an unidentified group of men had showed up at two separate street protests and shot at demonstrators.

Authorities confirmed six deaths over the weekend, including the killing of a candidate to the assembly during a robbery, although opposition lawmakers said the toll was higher.

The candidate, Felix Pineda, 39, was shot dead during a robbery at his home on Saturday night in the jungle state of Bolivar, the state prosecutor's office said. Bolivar's Socialist Party governor, Francisco Rangel, said the death was a "political hit job" and blamed it on the opposition.

Supporters of "Chavismo," the movement founded by late leader Hugo Chavez, Maduro's more charismatic predecessor who enjoyed high oil prices for much of his mandate, said they wanted to halt the unrest.

"The (opposition) wants deaths and roadblocks and the government wants peace," said Olga Blanco, 50, voting for candidates to the assembly at a school in Caracas.

The assembly is due to sit within 72 hours of results being certified, with government loyalists such as powerful Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello and Maduro's wife and son expected to win seats.

"We have decided to be free, nothing else matters," said Cabello, who could be the next assembly president amid rumours of power struggles within the ruling party.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela — After weeks of violent street clashes and tension, Venezuelans started casting ballots Sunday in a poll that could mark a turning point for their country.

Elio Herrera, who voted in a Caracas neighborhood, called the exercise “democratic and popular.”

The vote will allow President Nicolás Maduro to replace the current legislative body, the National Assembly, with a new institution known as the Constituent Assembly that will have the power to rewrite the constitution.

“It was a quick and simple process,” Herrera said, describing the ambiance at the polling station as happy and hopeful. But the stress marking the country’s politics simmered on Sunday as authorities braced for protests — and news broke that one of the candidates in the election, lawyer José Félix Pineda, had been shot dead in his home on Saturday.

The attorney general’s office tweeted that a state prosecutor is probing the death. “A group of people broke into the home of the victim in the Brisas del Sur sector and shot him multiple times,” the attorney general’s office said in a tweet. Pineda is listed as candidate number 3 in Bolivar state.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. ET Sunday, with nearly 380,000 troops guarding voting stations, and close at 6 p.m., according to a government release.

Experts have said the outcome is a foregone conclusion: Maduro will be able to consolidate political power. The opposition to Maduro fears the vote will erode democracy and give the Venezuelan leader sweeping authority.

Maduro’s administration has deemed any protests illegal, threatening anyone who defies the no-protest order with up to 10 years in prison.

Maduro, who said he was the first voter in today’s election, called casting the first vote a symbol of the independence and sovereignty of Venezuela.

He accused US President Donald Trump of trying to “prevent the people from carrying out its right to vote,” and boasted that his government is seeing through the vote despite international pressure.

“The Constituent Assembly will be the space, the power of powers, the super power that will, so to speak, recover the national spirit, find reconciliation, justice, find the truth.”

Maduro’s opponents control the National Assembly, holding 112 of the body’s 167 seats, and have been battling with him for political power since they won a majority of seats in December 2015. Before the winners of those elections took office, Maduro stacked the country’s Supreme Court with loyalists to prevent his own impeachment.

The proposed Constituent Assembly would be made up of 545 members, all nominated by Maduro’s administration. Nominees include his wife, Cilia Flores, and prominent loyalists such as former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez and former Vice President Diosdado Cabello.

The opposition hasn’t submitted any candidates for the vote because it doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the election. Maduro foes aren’t going to the polls and instead have scheduled a large protest in Caracas.

Ultimately, the vote and the creation of Maduro’s Constituent Assembly would give the President immense political power to revise the Venezuelan Constitution.

Maduro says the vote will help bring peace to a polarized country, with all branches of the government falling under the political movement founded by Maduro’s late mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

Critics in Venezuela and abroad argue a Maduro mandate would erode any last signs of democracy in the country.

“It would give the government the opportunity to turn Venezuela into a one-party state without any of the trappings of democracy,” says Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas, a business association.

US President Donald Trump recently said in a statement that Maduro “dreams of being a dictator.” His administration sanctioned 13 Venezuelan leaders associated with Maduro this week.

Mexico, Colombia and Panama followed with sanctions of their own against the same individuals, and Colombia said it won’t recognize Sunday’s vote results. The Organization of American States deems the vote illegal.

Trump warned he would take further “strong and swift economic action” against Maduro after the vote, though his administration hasn’t elaborated beyond saying all options are on the table.

Venezuela’s ministry of communication did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on the upcoming vote.

Young Venezuelans have taken to the streets for months to protest the vote, known locally as “la constituyente,” or the constituent. The Venezuelan National Guard and protesters clash nearly every day, and more than 110 Venezuelans have died.

Many areas of Caracas were brought to a standstill Wednesday and Thursday after the opposition called for a 48-hour strike. Most of the city’s main arteries were blocked off and the usual traffic congestion was nowhere to be seen. In contrast, many pro-government neighborhoods continued with business as usual.

Venezuelan paramedic Johann Paredes has been in the thick of the protests, treating both injured protesters and national guardsmen. He said he worries about what may happen Sunday when the vote takes place.

“Honestly, I’m terrified,” Paredes said in the midst of tear gas. He said he tries to stay apolitical “but if I take my helmet off, I would say I’m totally against” the vote.

Paredes lacks gauze and gloves to treat injuries on the front lines. He gets supplies only from random donations and nongovernmental organizations. He uses a makeshift spray bottle to squirt an anti-acid liquid into people’s mouths to ease the burning sensation of tear gas.

Volunteer medic Genesis Franceshi said Sunday she is anxious and tired by the street battles.

“It’s difficult but it’s our work,” she said, describing 12-hour shifts. “The weariness, the hours we endure in the street. Sometimes. We don’t have a a consistent food supply so we eat what we can to provide care.”

The backdrop to the vote is Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis, triggered by a crippling economic collapse that has caused extreme shortages of food and medicine.

Anti-Maduro demonstrator Geoffrey Fuentes ate only cookies for breakfast and planned to have them again for dinner. A college graduate, his days are spent mostly on the front lines of the protests rather than the food lines to stock his refrigerator.

“We eat whatever we can get,” said Fuentes. “If the situation doesn’t change, we’ll stay in the street fighting.”

On July 16, more than 7 million Venezuelans cast ballots in an unofficial vote against Maduro’s Constituent Assembly. Maduro ignored the results of the vote, which was organized by opposition leaders.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's socialist government on Monday claimed a popular mandate to dramatically recast the country's political system even as condemnations of the process poured in from governments around the world and the opposition at home.

The United States added President Nicolas Maduro to a steadily growing list of high-ranking Venezuelan officials targeted by financial sanctions — escalating a tactic that has so far failed to alter the Venezuelan government's behavior. The Trump administration backed away from earlier threats to sanction Venezuela's oil industry — a move that could undermine Maduro's government but raise U.S. gas prices and deepen Venezuela's humanitarian crisis.

Electoral authorities said more than 8 million people voted Sunday to create a constitutional assembly endowing Maduro's ruling party with virtually unlimited powers — a figure widely disputed by independent analysts.

The official result would mean the ruling party won more support than it had in any national election since 2013, despite a cratering economy, spiraling inflation, shortages of medicine and malnutrition. Opinion polls showed 85 percent of Venezuelans disapproved of the constitutional assembly and similar numbers disapprove of Maduro's overall performance.

Independent analysts and opposition leaders estimated the real turnout at less than half the government's claim in a vote watched by government-allied observers but no internationally recognized poll monitors.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the governor of the central state of Miranda, urged Venezuelans to protest Monday against an assembly that critics fear will effectively create a single-party state.

In a strike at Venezuela's already flailing economy, U.S. officials said the Trump administration is preparing to levy new sanctions on Venezuela, following through on threats to impose penalties if the country went through with the weekend election.

The officials said the new sanctions could be imposed as early as Monday and will likely target Venezuela's oil sector, including possibly its state owned petroleum company. One official said an announcement was imminent. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Maduro has said the new assembly will begin to govern within a week. He said he would use the assembly's powers to bar opposition candidates from running in gubernatorial elections in December unless they sit with his party to negotiate an end to hostilities that have generated four months of protests that have killed at least 120 and wounded nearly 2,000.

Venezuela's chief prosecutor's office reported 10 deaths in new rounds of clashes Sunday between protesters and police. Seven police officers were wounded when a fiery explosion went off as they drove past piles of trash that had been used to blockade a street in an opposition stronghold in eastern Caracas.

Maduro says a new constitution is the only way to end such conflicts.

"The people have delivered the constitutional assembly," Maduro said on national television. "More than 8 million in the middle of threats ... it's when imperialism challenges us that we prove ourselves worthy of the blood of the liberators that runs through the veins of men, women, children and young people."

National Electoral Council President Tibisay Lucena announced just before midnight that turnout in Sunday's vote was 41.53 percent, or 8,089,320 people.

The electoral council's vote counts in the past have been seen as reliable and generally accurate, but the widely mocked announcement appeared certain to escalate the polarization and political conflict paralyzing the country.

"If it wasn't a tragedy ... if it didn't mean more crisis, the electoral council's number would almost make you laugh," opposition leader Freddy Guevara said on Twitter. Maduro has threatened that one of the constitutional assembly's first acts would be jailing Guevara for inciting violence.

An exit poll based on surveys from 110 voting centers by New York investment bank Torino Capital and a Venezuela public opinion company estimated 3.6 million people voted, or about 18.5 percent of registered voters. "The results thus suggest that the government maintains an important loyal core of supporters that it can mobilize in both electoral and non-electoral scenarios," the report concluded.

The same pollsters noted that Venezuela has an estimated 2.6 million government employees, "suggesting that a large fraction of the votes could have not been voluntary."

The European Union and nations including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain, Britain and the United States criticized Sunday's vote. The Trump administration again promised "strong and swift actions" against Venezuelan officials, including the 545 participants in the constitutional assembly, many of them low-ranking party members.

Maduro said he had received congratulations from the governments of Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua, among others.

Opposition leaders had called for a boycott of the vote, declaring it rigged for the ruling party. Ahead of the vote, the opposition organized a series of work stoppages as well as a July 16 protest referendum that it said drew more than 7.5 million symbolic votes against the constitutional assembly.

The president of the opposition-led National Assembly, Julio Borges, told Venezuelan news channel Globovision Monday that Maduro's foes would continue protesting until they won free elections and a change of government.

He said Sunday's vote had given Maduro "less legitimacy, less credibility, less popular support and less ability to govern."

Maduro called the vote for a constitutional assembly in May after a month of protests against his government, which has overseen Venezuela's descent into a devastating crisis during its four years in power. Due to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement, Venezuela's inflation and homicide rates are among the world's highest, and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves.

The 545-seat constituent assembly will have the task of rewriting the country's constitution and will have powers above and beyond other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

Maduro made clear in a televised address Saturday that he intends to use the assembly not just to rewrite the country's charter but to govern without limitation. Describing the vote as "the election of a power that's above and beyond every other," Maduro said he wants the assembly to strip opposition lawmakers and governors of constitutional immunity from prosecution — one of the few remaining checks on ruling party power.

Declaring the opposition "already has its prison cell waiting," Maduro added: "All the criminals will go to prison for the crimes they've committed."</s>President Nicolas Maduro brushed off new U.S. sanctions on him and condemnation at home and abroad of the newly chosen constitutional assembly, saying the vote has given him a popular mandate to radically overall Venezuela's political system.

Maduro said Monday evening he had no intention of deviating from his plans to rewrite the constitution and go after a string of enemies, from independent Venezuelan news channels to gunmen he claimed were sent by neighboring Colombia to disrupt the vote as part of an international conspiracy led by the man he calls "Emperor Donald Trump."

"They don't intimidate me. The threats and sanctions of the empire don't intimidate me for a moment," Maduro said on national television. "I don't listen to orders from the empire, not now or ever ... Bring on more sanctions, Donald Trump."

A few hours earlier, Washington added Maduro to a steadily growing list of high-ranking Venezuelan officials targeted by financial sanctions, escalating a tactic that has so far failed to alter his socialist government's behavior. For now, the Trump administration did not deliver on threats to sanction Venezuela's oil industry, which could undermine Maduro's government but raise U.S. gas prices and deepen the humanitarian crisis here.

The sanctions came after electoral authorities said more than 8 million people voted Sunday to create a constitutional assembly endowing Maduro's ruling party with virtually unlimited powers — a turnout doubted by independent analysts while the election was labeled illegitimate by leaders across the Americans and Europe.

Venezuela's National Electoral Council said turnout in Sunday's vote was 41.53 percent, or 8,089,320 people. The result would mean the ruling party won more support than it had in any national election since 2013, despite a cratering economy, spiraling inflation, shortages of medicine and malnutrition. Opinion polls had said some 85 percent of Venezuelans disapproved of the constitutional assembly and similar numbers disapproved of Maduro's overall performance.

Opposition leaders estimated the real turnout at less than half the government's claim in a vote watched by government-allied observers but no internationally recognized poll monitors.

An exit poll based on surveys from 110 voting centers by New York investment bank Torino Capital and a Venezuela public opinion company estimated 3.6 million people voted, or about 18.5 percent of registered voters.

The electoral council's vote counts in the past had been seen as reliable and generally accurate, but the widely mocked announcement appeared certain to escalate the polarization and political conflict paralyzing the country.

"If it wasn't a tragedy ... if it didn't mean more crisis, the electoral council's number would almost make you laugh," opposition leader Freddy Guevara said on Twitter. Maduro has threatened that one of the constitutional assembly's first acts would be jailing Guevara for inciting violence.

The constituent assembly will have the task of rewriting the country's constitution and will have powers above and beyond other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

Maduro has said the new assembly will begin to govern within a week. Among other measures, he said he would use the assembly's powers to bar opposition candidates from running in gubernatorial elections in December unless they sit with his party to negotiate an end to hostilities that have generated four months of protests that have killed at least 120 and wounded nearly 2,000.

Along with the U.S., the European Union and nations including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Spain and Britain criticized Sunday's vote. Maduro said he had received congratulations from the governments of Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua, among others.

The monetary impact of the new U.S. sanctions wasn't immediately clear as Maduro's holdings in U.S. jurisdictions, if he has any, weren't publicized. However, imposing sanctions on a head of state is rare and can be symbolically powerful, leading other countries to similarly shun such a leader. For example, the U.S. has had sanctions against Syria's President Bashar Assad since 2011. Other heads of state currently subject to U.S. sanctions include Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Maduro called the constitutional assembly in May after a month of protests against his government, which has overseen Venezuela's descent into a devastating crisis during its four years in power. Due to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement, Venezuela's inflation and homicide rates are among the world's highest, and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves.

The president of the opposition-led National Assembly, Julio Borges, told Venezuelan news channel Globovision on Monday that Maduro's foes would continue protesting until they won free elections and a change of government.

He said Sunday's vote gave Maduro "less legitimacy, less credibility, less popular support and less ability to govern."

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Christine Armario in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.</s>Authorities say ten people were killed in clashes between protesters and law enforcement in Venezuela on Sunday. The nation's president, Nicolas Maduro, called elections to choose a constituent assembly, which would have the power to rewrite the constitution, and more.

Many in Venezuela opposed and even boycotted the elections, which they saw as an attempt to consolidate Maduro's power. One in four Venezuelans are unemployed and there are shortages of everything from medicine to toilet paper.

Maduro claimed victory, lashing out at President Donald Trump in the process. Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, called the Venezuelan election a "sham."

Francisco J. Monaldi, Fellow in Latin American Energy Policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy says it is likely that the United States will impose energy-related sanctions on Venezuela this week, beginning with a ban on exports of crude oil products from the U.S. to Venezuela. He says such sanctions will impact Venezuela, but that other sanctions the U.S. could impose, including financial sanctions or a ban on oil imports from Venezuela could have a massive impact on the South American country.</s>President Nicolas Maduro pledged Saturday evening to go after his political foes with the virtually unlimited powers of a constitutional assembly being elected Sunday, while Venezuela's opposition made a last-ditch effort to flood streets across the country in defiance of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and police.

In an address on state-run television, Maduro made clear he wants the assembly to strip opposition legislators of their constitutional immunity from prosecution and jail at least one.

"This little Hitler has his cell guaranteed!" Maduro shouted, using his frequent nickname for Freddy Guevara, a hard-line opposition leader and one the highest-profile organizers of four months of protests against the government.

The opposition is boycotting Sunday's vote, contending the election has been structured to ensure Maduro's ruling socialist party continues to dominate. So all 5,500 candidates for the 545 seats in the constituent assembly are government supporters.

The vote's success will be measured by turnout, with the opposition urging Venezuelans to stay and the government encouraging participation with tactics that include threats to state workers' jobs and social benefits like subsidized food for the poor.

Maduro indicated he is eager to prosecute many more members of the opposition parties that control a handful of state governments along with the National Assembly, providing one of the few remaining checks on the power of the socialist party that has ruled this OPEC nation for nearly two decades.

"The right wing already has its prison cell waiting," the president said. "All the criminals will go to prison for the crimes they've committed."

He added that the constituent assembly's first task in rewriting the constitution will be "a total transformation" of the office of Venezuela's chief prosecutor, a former government loyalist who has become the highest-ranking official to publicly split from the president.

Once one of Latin America's wealthiest and most stable nations, Venezuela has spiraled into a devastating socioeconomics crisis during Maduro's four years in power, thanks to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement. Inflation and homicide rates are among the world's highest and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves.

In April, Maduro's supporters on the Supreme Court tried to strip the National Assembly of its powers, setting off protests and clashes between police and demonstrators that have left at least 113 dead and nearly 2,000 wounded. Although most of the dead have been protesters apparently shot by police and government-linked paramilitaries, Maduro's government blames the opposition for the violence.

The government has arrested opposition mayors and party leaders but until now has refrained from going after higher-profile politicians whose posts grant them immunity from prosecution.

Maduro called on May 1 for the election of an assembly with the powers to rewrite the country's 1999 constitution. That constitution stipulates that other branches of government cannot interfere with a constituent assembly's decisions and Maduro made clear he intends to use the special assembly to govern, describing Sunday's vote as "the election of a power that's above and beyond every other. It's the super power!"

He said the assembly would begin to govern next week.

Washington has imposed successive rounds of sanctions on members of Maduro's administration and Vice President Mike Pence on Friday promised "strong and swift economic actions" after Sunday's vote. He didn't say whether the U.S. would sanction Venezuelan oil imports, a measure with the potential to undermine Maduro but cause an even deeper humanitarian crisis here.

The opposition has organized a series of work stoppages as well as a July 16 protest vote that it said drew more than 7.5 million symbolic votes against the constitutional assembly. It called Saturday for roadblocks to start before dawn Sunday and a mass march on Caracas' main highway.

"A new stage in the democratic struggle starts tomorrow," Julio Borges, the president of the National Assembly, said at a news conference called by Democratic Unity, a coalition of some 20 opposition groups. "This new stage will need more courage ... street protests will get stronger."

Opinion polls say more than 70 percent of the country is opposed to Sunday's vote. But as many as half of all Venezuelans support neither the government nor the opposition — a phenomenon evident in the glum paralysis that has gripped much of the country as protesters and police wage nightly battles.

In the opposition strongholds of relatively wealthy eastern Caracas on Saturday, skinny teenagers manned barricades of tree branches, garbage and barbed wire torn from nearby buildings. In the western state of Tachira, people posted videos online showing residents burning ballots and other voting materials in a large bonfire while chanting the national anthem.

Twitter users who claimed to be eyewitnesses said locals intercepted a truck belonging to "Plan Republica," the military operation in charge of delivering materials to voting centers. In another video, people could be seen dragging plastic boxes, opening them and throwing the contents onto the street.

State authorities said 21 voting centers had been attacked and eight voting machines destroyed. The report could not be independently confirmed Saturday.

Much of the rest of the country was calm, however, and many Venezuelans said that while they wanted Maduro out of power, they didn't want to risk their lives or livelihoods taking on the government.

"People who work for the government will vote because they're forcing them to," said Jasson Chino, a 25-year-old food vendor. He said he wouldn't be protesting because he didn't think it would help, but that he expected bad days ahead regardless.

"I think everything's going to get worse because our problems will keep getting bigger," he said. "Our problems will keep getting worse."

Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.</s>Once one of Latin America's wealthiest nations, Venezuela has spiralled into a devastating crisis during Maduro's four years in power, thanks to plunging oil prices and widespread corruption and mismanagement. Inflation and homicide rates are among the world's highest and widespread shortages of food and medicine have citizens dying of preventable illnesses and rooting through trash to feed themselves.

The special assembly being selected Sunday will have powers to rewrite the country's 1999 constitution but will also have powers above and beyond other state institutions, including the opposition-controlled congress.

While opinion polls say a vast majority oppose him, Maduro made clear in a televised address Saturday evening that he intends to use the assembly to govern without limitation, describing the vote as "the election of a power that's above and beyond every other. It's the super power!"

He said he wants the assembly to strip opposition legislators of their constitutional immunity from prosecution and indicated he is eager to prosecute many more members of the opposition parties that control a handful of state governments along with the National Assembly, providing one of the few remaining checks on the power of the socialist party that has ruled this OPEC nation for nearly two decades.

"The right wing already has its prison cell waiting," the president said. "All the criminals will go to prison for the crimes they've committed."

Saying the assembly will begin to govern within a week, Maduro said its first task in rewriting the constitution will be "a total transformation" of the office of Venezuela's chief prosecutor, a former government loyalist who has become the highest-ranking official to publicly split from the president.

The Trump administration has imposed successive rounds of sanctions on high-ranking members of Maduro's administration, with the support of countries including Mexico, Colombia and Panama. Vice-President Mike Pence promised on Friday that the U.S. would take "strong and swift economic actions" if the vote went ahead. He didn't say whether the U.S. would sanction Venezuelan oil imports, a measure with the potential to undermine Maduro but cause an even deeper humanitarian crisis here

Maduro's supporters on the Supreme Court set off the protests and clashes between police and demonstrator when they tried to strip the National Assembly of its powers in April. Most of the dead have been protesters apparently shot by police and government-linked paramilitaries.

The opposition has organized a series of work stoppages as well as a July 16 protest vote that it said drew more than 7.5 million symbolic votes against the constitutional assembly. It called Saturday for roadblocks to start before dawn Sunday and a mass march on Caracas' main highway.

"A new stage in the democratic struggle starts tomorrow," Julio Borges, the president of the National Assembly, said at a news conference called by Democratic Unity, a coalition of some 20 opposition groups. "This new stage will need more courage ... street protests will get stronger."</s>After months of protests, millions are called upon to choose representatives of an assembly to redraft the constitution.

After months of protests and clashes, with more than 100 people killed, Venezuelans are being called on to choose the members of a new National Constituent Assembly that will be tasked with drafting a new constitution.

In 1999, the then newly elected President Hugo Chavez and voters supported the initiative.

The difference now is that Sunday's election was ordered by decree, with no referendum indicating that a majority wants a change.

Venezuelans will answer one question: Who should represent you in the assembly?

Anticipating possible violence, the government has banned protests.

But the opposition has called people to the streets.

"Extend the barricades until tomorrow and everybody go to the streets on Sunday to demand the transformation of Venezuela," Freddy Guevara, an opposition congressman, said on Twitter. "This is a tough, conflictive time that we did not look for, but that will only hasten the fall of this government."

So what does this process entail? Below, we answer key questions:

An elected temporary parliament that has the mandate to draft or reform the Constitution.

On July 30, Venezuelans will choose the members of this parliament.

President Maduro invoked article 347 of the Venezuelan Constitution, which reads as follows:

"The Venezuelan people are the depositary of the original constituent power. In the exercise of that power, it can convene a National Constituent Assembly with the purpose of transforming the state, creating a new legal system and drafting a new Constitution."

The president has the power to do so, although he will not be able to object to the constitution that results from it.

In terms of changes, it is not clear yet what is coming.

Maduro has talked about the Constituent Assembly as an initiative that will resolve political and economic challenges, but it is unclear what the reforms will be.

Critics fear that the Constituent Assembly will try to override the National Assembly, the only government sector not controlled by Maduro's party.

READ MORE: Venezuela has reached the 'zero hour' - What's next?

2. Why did Maduro call this vote?

President Maduro called for the Assembly on May 1 amid a political crisis marked by a month of almost daily demonstrations.

At an open air rally before thousands of supporters, Maduro signed a document formally establishing the terms for electing members of the constituent assembly.

The president announced his decision saying it was the "only road to restore peace".

In a speech, he said that he aimed to "let the sovereign people impose peace, harmony and true national dialogue".

Maduro assured that the new constitution will be an "improvement" of the revolutionary plan of Chavez.

3. Who can elect and be elected?

There will be 545 elected delegates to the assembly, from more than 6,000 candidates.

From those, 364 will be chosen by local polls. The other 181 members will be elected by members of seven social sectors, including indigenous groups, poor farmers, students, and pensioners.

Those sectors have always shown strong support to Chavez and Maduro.

The opposition is boycotting the election, so from the 6,000 people that are running for seats, they do not have any representation.

Critics say the process has been distorted, because the president chose who could be listed in the constituent. That decision was not open to the public.

READ MORE: Venezuela's worst economic crisis - What went wrong?

4. What do supporters say?

They say they are willing to participate and hope the vote brings stability.

"We will participate in a process that the majority, accept, receive and are willing to participate in. On July 30, we will see the true support to the Bolivarian Revolution, and President Nicolas Maduro," General Gabriel Oviedo, a candidate to the Constituent, told Al Jazeera.

"The Constituent will continue, and with it the mechanisms will come so that each one responds to its illegal acts, it's time to have justice, and to defend the motherland," he added.

Cilia Flores, Maduro's wife and a candidate for the assembly, believes the move will bring peace and stability. "The National Assembly went crazy, and they thought they could overthrow President Maduro ... the people want peace, and this stability will be given to us by the Constituent," she told local media.

"This has not been an imposed process. I support it. It is an instrument of the state, something imposed is not submitted to a vote," Rossana Melendez, an environmental manager, told Al Jazeera.

5. What does the opposition say?

The opposition rejected the move from the start.

A Supreme Tribunal magistrate, Luisa Ortega Diaz, said the assembly was "not the solution to the crisis" and called on Maduro to "think carefully" to avoid more bloodshed.

Jose Haro, a constitutional lawyer, said: "What happens if this Constituent Assembly is imposed, without having consulted the people, is that it [risks dismantling] the state that we have, the constitutional base that we have.

"It gives way to a situation of high voltage political conflict, which can lead to even greater confrontation. The day that Maduro summoned the Constituent Assembly, the number of killed in demonstrations was no more than 29. After he made the announcement, the number has tripled ... If this goes ahead, Venezuela will enter a dark period."

The opposition is demanding elections to remove Maduro from power. They blame him for an economic crisis that has caused shortages of food, medicine and basic supplies.

6. How long could the process take?

Last time this happened, the process began on February 2, 1999, and finished with the publication of the Constitution in March 2000.

The Constituent Assembly could last more than a year because referendums and elections must be convened to determine the constituents, who are likely to discuss for months the issues concerning the new constitution.

This would allow the president to stay in power during the process, and could lead to a delay of the 2018 presidential election.

7. What was achieved the first time this was done?

The Constituent Assembly of 1999 made significant changes, including increasing the presidential term from five to six years; unifying the two chambers of the National Congress into a National Assembly, and changing the name of the country to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

8. What happens next?

Pressure from the opposition is expected to grow. Maduro has warned that his government is "ready for any scenario".

According to its decree, the National Constituent Assembly will be installed within 72 hours after the proclamation of the constituents.

President Maduro promised that before the new constitution is implemented, it would also be the subject of a referendum.

During the 1999 Constituent Assembly, Congress was shut down. This time, the Congress has said it will not cooperate.
Voters in Venezuela participate in an election for members of a new Constitutional Assembly, devised by President Nicolás Maduro to amend the constitution following a legislative takeover in March. Many Venezuelans question the election's legitimacy, resulting in boycotts and ongoing protests.