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The Latest: Venezuela’s leader casts unusual early vote

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro waves the Venezeulan flag during a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Maduro has provoked international outcry and enraged an opposition demanding his resignation with his push to elect an assembly that will rewrite the constitution. Sunday's election will cap nearly four months of political upheaval that has left thousands detained and injured and at least 100 dead. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro waves the Venezeulan flag during a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Maduro has provoked international outcry and enraged an opposition demanding his resignation with his push to elect an assembly that will rewrite the constitution. Sunday's election will cap nearly four months of political upheaval that has left thousands detained and injured and at least 100 dead. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

By Associated Press July 30, 2017 1 min read

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – The Latest on Venezuela’s political crisis and the vote for a constitutional assembly (all times local):

7 a.m.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is asking for global acceptance as he casts an unusual pre-dawn vote for an all-powerful constitutional assembly that his opponents fear he’ll use to replace the country’s democracy with a single-party authoritarian system.

Accompanied by close advisers and state media, Maduro voted at 6:05 a.m. local time, far earlier and less publicly than in previous elections. The run-up to Sunday’s vote has been marked by months of clashes between protesters and the government, including the fatal shooting of a 61-year-old nurse by men accused of being pro-government paramilitaries during a protest this month at a church a few hundred feet from the school where Maduro voted.

“We’ve stoically withstood the terrorist, criminal violence,” Maduro said. “Hopefully the world will respectfully extend its arms toward our country.”