Mariana Zuñiga

Special for USA TODAY

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan election officials said 8 million people voted Sunday to create a constitutional assembly endowing President Nicolás Maduro with virtually unlimited powers, a vote total decried by domestic and foreign critics as a sham.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council's estimated turnout Sunday was more than double that of political opponents and independent experts.

Opposition leaders also said 12 people were killed in violence in the face of a massive presence of troops around the country on Sunday. The government confirmed nine deaths.

Maduro, who faces a worsening economic crisis despite Venezuela's enormous oil reserves, seeks to establish a friendly assembly that would bypass the opposition-controlled Congress to rewrite the country’s 1999 constitution. Opponents accuse him of trying to create a single-party, authoritarian system like that in Cuba.

Electoral Council President Tibisay Lucena announced just before midnight Sunday that turnout was 41.53%, or 8,089,320 people.

The count was met with mockery and anger from members of the opposition, who said they believed between 2 million and 3 million people voted.

Julio Borges, president of the opposition-led National Assembly, said only 7% of the electorate had voted — a silent protest of Maduro's power grab, which would slam the brakes on democracy.

The opposition had urged voters to boycott the vote, but millions of Venezuelans who hold government jobs were ordered to cast ballots or risk being fired.

Others feared loss of social benefits like subsidized food. “I’m here because I’m hoping for housing,” admitted hairdresser Luisa Marquez, 46, as she waited in line to vote.

Opinion polls had indicated that more than two-thirds of the nation opposed the president's move. The opposition said 7 million had voted against constitutional changes in a referendum it had organized a week ago.

A midday check of 10 polling places here in the capital Sunday showed most of them empty or nearly empty.

“Venezuela has screamed with its silence,” said Borges, who put the day's death toll at 12. The public prosecutor's office confirmed nine deaths.

Maduro's vision of a new constitution to consolidate his power has drawn ire in Washington. Last week, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on 13 senior Venezuelan officials, and the White House and some U.S. lawmakers said stiffer sanctions could follow. Mexico said it would support U.S. sanctions, and the Organization of American States and the European Parliament have also expressed support for the opposition.

Late Sunday, the U.S. State Department officially condemned the Venezuelan government for holding the vote, saying Maduro's bid to consolidate power would “undermine the Venezuelan people’s right to self-determination.”

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has called the vote a “sham election.”

In Venezuela, opposition leaders refused to put up candidates, arguing that the election has been structured to ensure that Maduro’s ruling socialist party dominates. Thus virtually all the more than 5,000 candidates for 545 assembly seats are Maduro supporters.

The opposition vowed to protest despite a ban on public gatherings issued by Maduro. In some parts of the capital, people took to the streets in protest against the vote, but they were soon repelled by security forces throwing tear gas.

During a protest, opposition supporters set an explosive that injured seven police officers, the public prosecutor's office said. After the blast, police set fire to four motorcycles belonging to journalists.

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Maduro has struggled with a rapidly deteriorating economy and strengthening political opposition. Some voters said they believed the new assembly might improve life in Venezuela.

“I’m voting today because I want peace to be restored,” said seamstress Carmen Martinez, 44. But she said she was less certain the assembly will solve the nation's economic ills.

"I’m going to have hope, but I doubt this could solve that problem," she said.

Months of violence leading up to the vote showed little signs of ending, with media reporting that a leading assembly candidate and an opposition activist were killed before voting even began.

José Felix Pineda, a lawyer running in the election, was shot in his home Saturday night, a senior Venezuelan minister told the BBC.

Maduro has denied links to violent paramilitaries that have run roughshod across the country, blaming the opposition for unrelenting violence that has left more than 100 people dead.

Maduro himself voted with little fanfare early in the morning.

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

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles called on Venezuelans to protest on Monday.

Contributing: The Associated Press. Contributing: John Bacon in McLean, Va.