Nicolas Maduro was named the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday, but the opposition and important regional neighbours quickly rejected the official results.
The opposition coalition claimed victory by a huge majority, following an election campaign marred by allegations of political intimidation and fraud, with pollsters predicting Maduro would lose but be unlikely to concede after more than a decade in office.
According to the electoral council (CNE), he was re-elected with 51.2% of the vote, while opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia received 44.2%.
Maduro, 61, spoke to jubilant supporters at the presidential palace shortly after the announcement.
“I can say, before the people of Venezuela and the world, I am Nicolas Maduro Moros, the re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” Maduro said.
“There will be peace, stability and justice. Peace and respect for the law.”
But the opposition coalition insisted it had garnered 70 percent of the vote, rejecting the figures from the CNE.
“We want to say to all of Venezuela and the world that Venezuela has a new president-elect and it is (candidate) Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia,” opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told journalists, calling the official result “another fraud”.
Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old former diplomat, said “our fight continues, and we will not rest until the will of the Venezuelan people is reflected,” while underlining that there was no call for protests.
“The results are undeniable. The country chose a peaceful change,” he wrote on X ahead of the official result.
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves called the official result “fraudulent,” and Chile’s president termed it as “hard to believe.”
Peru said that it has summoned its ambassador for consultation on the results.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “serious concerns” that the outcome did not reflect Venezuelans’ preferences.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Caracas to ensure “full transparency in the electoral process.”
Venezuela’s allies, which include China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Bolivia, applauded Maduro.
Independent surveys indicated that Sunday’s vote would terminate 25 years of “Chavismo,” the populist movement founded by Maduro’s socialist predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chávez.
Since 2013, Maduro has led the once-wealthy petro-state, whose GDP fell by 80 percent in a decade, forcing more than seven million of its 30 million residents to flee.
He is accused of imprisoning critics and persecuting the opposition in an era of growing authoritarianism.
Gonzalez Urrutia took over for popular Machado on the ticket after Maduro supporters barred her from competing.
Machado, who campaigned extensively for her proxy, asked voters on Sunday to remain “vigilant” at their polling locations during the “decisive hours” of counting, despite widespread concerns of fraud.
Maduro had previously warned of a “bloodbath” if he lost.
‘Prepared to defend’
He relies on a loyal electoral machinery, military leadership, and state institutions as part of a well-established political patronage system.
According to a Venezuelan NGO, Caracas has held 305 “political prisoners” and detained 135 people associated with the opposition movement since January.
Ballots were cast using machines that print paper receipts and placed in a container. The electronic votes are sent straight to a consolidated CNE database.
The opposition had sent approximately 90,000 volunteer election monitors to voting locations across the country.
The CNE president, Elvis Amoroso, criticized a “aggression against the data transmission system that delayed” the count.
Maduro reportedly mentioned a “hacking” of the vote system as he left to celebrate with supporters.
Amoroso reported a voter turnout of 59 percent.
Approximately 17 million Venezuelans were eligible to vote.
Watching ‘very closely’
Sunday’s election was the result of a negotiated agreement reached last year between the administration and the opposition.
The decision to hold the vote prompted the US to temporarily lift sanctions imposed following Maduro’s 2018 re-election, which was denounced as a farce by dozens of Western and Latin American nations.
However, the sanctions were reinstated after Maduro failed to meet the agreed-upon requirements.
Washington hopes for a restoration to stability in Venezuela, which has the world’s greatest oil reserves but severely limited production capability.
Economic hardship in the South American country has been a significant source of migration pressure on the US southern border.
Most Venezuelans survive on a few dollars a month, and the country’s healthcare and education institutions are in disrepair.
The administration blames sanctions, while observers point to corruption and government inefficiencies.
Caracas banned numerous international monitors from entering the country at the last minute, raising concerns about the impartiality of the vote.