Venezuela’s Maduro declares election victory as opposition contests results
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The news: Venezuelan electoral officials declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of a third presidential term with 51.2% of the vote in the election, contradicting multiple exit polls that pointed to an opposition win.
The numbers: The National Electoral Council (CNE) said opposition candidate Edmundo González received 44.2% of the vote.
The result was disputed by the opposition, which alleged major fraud and irregularities, and claimed its own count of 40% of ballot boxes showed González winning 70% of the vote thus far.
Exit polls from Edison Research and Meganalisis had suggested González had won decisively, Reuters reported. A small mission of observers from the Carter Center is expected to release preliminary findings.
The context: The election follows 25 years of single-party rule under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, during which the socialist PSUV party has taken control of the executive, legislative and much of the judiciary.
It is unclear whether González and opposition leader María Corina Machado will mobilise the population to challenge the results after González said they were not calling for supporters to take to the streets to protest.
What they said: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “serious concerns that the declared outcome does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”
Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic also cast doubt on the result. But Maduro hailed his victory as a triumph of peace and stability, and allies like Cuba, Russia, China, Iran, and Bolivia issued messages congratulating Maduro.
The sources: BBC, Reuters, The Washington Post
