In Venezuela, the National Electoral Council, controlled by the country’s incumbent President Nicolas Maduro, announced his victory in the presidential election held on Sunday. This will be the third six-year presidential term for Maduro.
Officially, after processing 80 percent of the ballots, the incumbent president has just over 51 percent of the vote, while united opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez has 44 percent. The remaining eight electoral contestants have 4.6 percent of the vote, said Elvis Amoroso, chairman of the National Electoral Council.
The opposition is confident that the results are rigged, as in the last election in 2018. Pre-election polls and exit polls conducted by U.S. firm Edison Research showed opposition candidate Gonzalez winning by a margin of more than 30 percent.
“The results cannot be hidden. The country has peacefully chosen change,” Gonzalez wrote on social media X at the end of the vote, but before the official results were announced.
Maduro said after the results were announced that his victory was a triumph of peace and stability. Armed forces are already being deployed in several cities across the country, fearing possible unrest.
Venezuela’s most popular opposition politician, Maria Corina Machado, leader of the United Democratic Platform association, was not allowed to vote. She urged her supporters to vote for united opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.
Argentina, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Panama, and Panama have already announced their non-recognition of Maduro’s victory in Venezuela’s presidential election. Guatemala and Colombia doubt Maduro’s victory. Brazil will ask the UN to investigate possible fraud. The U.S. also expressed “grave concern” about the announced vote results and doubts that they reflect the will of the Venezuelan people.
“The data shows a crushing victory for the opposition, and the world is waiting for it to recognize defeat after years of socialism, suffering, decline and death. Argentina is not going to recognize another fraud and hopes that the armed forces will defend democracy and the will of the people this time,” Argentine President Javier Milay wrote on social network X.
A similar decision was made by the authorities of Peru and Chile. Peru’s Foreign Minister Javier Gonzalez-Olaechea called the vote in Venezuela “an attack on the popular will”. And Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren said the Chilean government would not recognize Nicolas Maduro’s victory until international observers announced their findings.
Nicolas Maduro ran for a third term, he has been in power since 2013. Then he succeeded the previous president Hugo Chavez, who also belonged to the socialist PSUV party. Maduro maintains good relations with Moscow.
The previous election was accompanied by mass protests that almost turned into an armed confrontation. Opposition representative Juan Guaido, citing alleged election fraud, declared himself interim president, in which capacity he was recognized by the U.S. and several other countries. The real power, however, remained in the hands of Maduro. Subsequently, the Venezuelan authorities, mediated by the United States, held a series of talks with representatives of the opposition, which resulted in the opposition’s refusal to recognize Guaido as president, and the authorities, in turn, promised to allow the opposition to participate in new elections. The United States responded by lifting a series of sanctions previously imposed on Caracas – but they were recently reimposed.
