The National Electoral Council announced Sunday evening that Nicolas Maduro had been re-elected as Venezuela’s president for a third term with 51.2% of the vote. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado also claimed victory with 70% of the vote.
The Venezuelan presidential election has had a confusing outcome. The National Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Sunday evening, July 28, that Nicolas Maduro had been re-elected to lead the country for a third term with 51.2% of the vote at the end of a campaign in which the opposition denounced intimidation and fears of fraud.
Nicolas Maduro won 5.15 million votes, ahead of opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, with just under 4.5 million (44.2%), according to official figures announced by CNE President Elvis Amoroso, after 80% of the ballots had been counted and a turnout of 59%. The result is “irreversible,” he said.
The opposition, for its part, claimed victory, assuring that its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had won 70% of the votes and refusing to recognize the results proclaimed by the CNE.
“We won” with “70% of the vote”, “Venezuela has a new elected president and it is Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia”, said the leader of the opposition, Maria Corina Machado, in a statement to the press in Caracas. “We all know what happened today (Sunday). And when I say that everyone knows, I start with the regime itself”, she assured. “The entire international community knows it, even those who were once allies.”
“Serious doubts” from Washington, “results hard to believe” for the Chilean president
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “serious doubts” about the accuracy of the election results on Monday, July 29. “We have serious concerns that the announced result does not reflect the will or the vote of the Venezuelan people,” Blinken added at a press conference in Japan.
“It is critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers, and that election authorities publish detailed voting results,” Blinken said. “The international community is monitoring the situation very closely and will respond accordingly.”
France called for “total transparency” to guarantee the “sincerity of the vote”, while Brazil stressed the importance of “impartial verification of the results”.
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Chilean President Gabriel Boric was the first head of state to publicly question the outcome of the presidential election. “The Maduro regime must understand that the results it publishes are difficult to believe,” Boric responded on X, stating that “Chile will not recognize any result that is not verifiable.”
“DICTATOR MADURO, OUT!!!”, wrote on X the Argentine president, Javier Milei. “Venezuelans have chosen to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.”
Costa Rica and Peru also rejected the declared result.
Nicolas Maduro celebrates his victory with his supporters
President Maduro, dressed in a Venezuelan-colored tracksuit and greeted by a small fireworks display and drones, stepped out onto a stage near the presidential palace in Caracas to celebrate his victory with his supporters chanting “Vamos, Nico!”
“There will be peace, stability and justice. Peace and respect for the law. I am a man of peace and dialogue,” he said.
Despite polls giving the candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia a clear victory, Nicolas Maduro, who relies on the military, has always seemed sure of his victory despite an unprecedented economic crisis.
Nicolas Maduro has received support from his usual allies: the leftist presidents of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, Bolivia, Luis Arce, and Honduras, Xiomara Castro.
Caracas had limited observation of the vote. The invitation to European Union observers was withdrawn in May and many international observers have been blocked or refused at the last minute, including four former Latin American presidents on Friday.
Also read: Venezuelan presidential election: opposition to Maduro sparks “real fervor”
The oil country, long one of the richest in Latin America, is bled dry, mired in an unprecedented economic and social crisis: collapse of oil production, GDP reduced by 80% in ten years, poverty and totally dilapidated health and education systems. Seven million Venezuelans have fled the country.
The opposition, which had hoped to end 25 years of Chavista rule, was nevertheless confident. “The results cannot be hidden. The country has chosen a change in peace,” wrote Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia on X.
Shortly before midnight, Omar Barboza, an opposition leader, protested against a possible “misstep” or “authoritarian haste” by the government, asking it to respect the result “in the name of peace”. “The minutes only confirm what we saw in the streets. The projection of their content clearly gives a result that should not be doubted.”
With AFP
