- Maduro declared winner with 51.21% vote
- Opposition and global leaders contest results
- Maduro’s win amid severe economic crisis
The government-controlled electoral body named Nicolás Maduro the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election, dashing opposition expectations for an end to his dictatorial, socialist reign after 25 years. Rivals and numerous governments in the region and elsewhere quickly challenged itollowing a six-hour delay in publishing the results of Sunday’s poll, Venezuela’s electoral council announced Maduro had won with 51.21% of the vote, compared to 44.2% for his competitor, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.
The council stated that with around 80% of votes tabulated, Maduro had received more than 5 million votes, compared to González’s 4.4 million.
Independent observers criticized Maduro’s election as the most arbitrary in recent years, even by the standards of an authoritarian system that began with his mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
Critics criticize Maduro for plunging Venezuela into a catastrophic economic and social crisis, as well as making the country an increasingly authoritarian regime in which political opponents are routinely imprisoned and tortured.
González’s campaign sparked a rare rush of optimism among millions of disillusioned citizens following a decade in which the country with the world’s largest oil reserves saw its economy decline by 80%, and almost 8 million people migrated abroad, accounting for nearly a third of its population.
Maduro dedicated his victory to Chávez, who named him his successor shortly before he died in 2013. Long live Chávez. “Chávez is alive!” Maduro shouted.
Nicolás Maduro Moros, the 61-year-old president of Venezuela, addressed supporters in Caracas. He stated, “I am Nicolás Maduro Moros – the re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela … and I will defend our democracy, law, and people.”
The opposition quickly disputed the results. The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” González stated in his opening remarks.
The opposition leader, María Corina Machado, who supported González’s campaign after being barred from participating, disputed the results, stating the opposition won in all states.
“We won, and everybody knows it,” she remarked. We haven’t just defeated them politically and morally; today, we beat them with votes,” Machado told reporters, adding that González is the country’s president-elect.
Maduro’s regional supporters praised the result, but the US and others expressed fears that the vote was corrupt.
Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez praised the “historic victory” as a testament to the “dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people.” In contrast, Bolivia’s leftwing leader, Luis Arce, emphasized the election was held on Chávez’s 70th birthday. “What a great way to remember the Comandante Hugo Chávez,” Arce wrote on his Twitter account.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated that his country had “serious concerns that the announced result does not reflect the will or votes of the Venezuelan people.
“Every vote must be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials promptly exchange information with the opposition and independent observers, and that the electoral authorities publish a comprehensive tabulation of votes. The international community is closely monitoring this situation and will respond accordingly,” he said.
Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, stated that his nation wanted to see a breakdown of the results before acknowledging Maduro’s victory.
“The Venezuelan people voted democratically and in large numbers yesterday,” Albares told Spain’s Cadena Ser radio station on Monday morning. “We want complete transparency, so we request that the results be published by polling station.” We don’t have a candidate; all we want is a guarantee of transparency. The release of polling station information is critical to validate the results.”
Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, tweeted, “Maduro’s dictatorship must understand that the figures it has presented are difficult to comprehend… “Chile will not recognize any result that cannot be verified.”
Peru’s foreign minister, Javier González-Olaechea, stated his country rejected the outcome. “Peru will not accept the violation of the popular will of the Venezuelan people,” the president said on Twitter.
Costa Rica’s administration firmly rejected a “fraudulent” conclusion, while Uruguay’s president, Luis Lacalle Pou, claimed the count was “clearly flawed.” “You cannot recognize a triumph if you do not trust the form and mechanisms used to achieve it,” Pou told me.
The outcome was a bitter blow to Venezuela’s notoriously fractured opposition, which had rallied around González’s unlikely candidacy – a 74-year-old former ambassador and political novice – in the hopes that he could help lead the country out of one of the worst peacetime economic collapses in modern history.
Machado declared the country was about to experience a “huge, unique, epic event that will change not only Venezuela’s history but also the entire region.”
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“The system is cracking for the first time in 25 years,” Machado asserted of charisma, anticipating a “huge, historic turnout” to remove Maduro from office.
Opposition supporters turned out in big numbers nationwide, aiming to remove Maduro from office.
“I voted for Edmundo González because I believe he is the only hope for change that we have here,” said Anabella Donzella, a 23-year-old economics student who voted in El Marqués, a middle-class neighborhood of Caracas.
Maduro, who was elected following Chávez’s death from cancer and returned to office in a heavily criticized 2018 election boycotted by the opposition, appeared confident as he laid a wreath at his late leader’s tomb in Caracas early Sunday morning.
Wearing a pink guayabera and flanked by the first lady, Cilia Flores, Maduro compared the election to one of Venezuela’s most famous military clashes during its war for independence from Spain. “This is our battle of Carabobo, and we are on our way to victory,” he stated, dedicating his campaign to Chávez, whom he had served as foreign minister and vice president.
