CNN —Venezuelans headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in a highly consequential presidential election where the country’s longtime strongman, Nicolas Maduro, will face one of his greatest political challenges yet, say analysts. Of the nine other candidates running for the presidency, his biggest challenger is a unified opposition movement that overcame their divisions to form a coalition known as the Democratic Unitary Platform. The opposition movement has maintained its momentum despite sustained government repression, in which their first-choice candidate, María Corina Machado, was disqualified from running. The government has also created significant impediments for the millions of Venezuelans abroad to vote, including widely unattainable passport and residency requirements. But several international election observers have announced this week that they will no longer travel to Venezuela to monitor the vote.

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Persons: Nicolas Maduro, Maduro, Hugo Chavez’s, María Corina Machado, Machado, Edmundo González Urrutia, Matias Delacroix, –, Laboratorio de, Jimmy Carter –, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, ” Laura Cristina Dib, CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon, David Shortell, Michael Rios Organizations: CNN, Democratic, International Monetary Fund, European Union, The Carter, Washington Office Locations: Venezuela, Latin America, Caracas, United States, Laboratorio de Paz, Venezuelan, America, WOLA