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Caracas, Venezuela • Venezuelans stayed away from the polls in massive numbers Sunday to protest against a vote to grant President Nicolas Maduro's ruling socialist party virtually unlimited powers in the face of a brutal socio-economic crisis and a grinding battle against its political opponents and groups of increasingly alienated and violent young protesters.

The government swore to continue its push for total political dominance, a move likely to trigger U.S. sanctions and new rounds of the street fighting that has killed at least 122 and wounded nearly 2,000 since protests began in April.

Venezuela's chief prosecutor's office reported seven deaths Sunday in clashes between protesters and police across the country. Seven police officers were wounded when an 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.

Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Panama and the United States said they would not recognize Sunday's vote. Canada and Mexico have also issued statements repudiating the election.

Across the capital of more than 2 million people, dozens of polling places were virtually empty. By contrast, at the Poliedro sports and cultural complex in western Caracas, several thousand people waited about two hours to vote, many drawn from opposition-dominated neighborhoods where polling places were closed. But at least three dozen other sites visited by The Associated Press had no more than a few hundred voters at any one time, with many virtually empty.

Opposition leaders had called for a boycott of the vote, declaring it was rigged for the ruling party, and by late afternoon they were declaring the low turnout a resounding victory.

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 winners among the 5,500 ruling-party candidates running for 545 seats in the constituent assembly will be charged with rewriting the 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.

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