Venezuela’s President Maduro declares victory despite claims of voting irregularities

Electoral authority announce Nicolás Maduro won 51 per cent of vote but result was immediately called into question by opposition parties

Nicolás Maduro declared victory in Venezuela’s presidential election despite widespread voting irregularities and allegations people were blocked from ballots or scared away from polling booths.
The autocrat claimed to have secured a third-term after exit polls showed him losing as millions turned out to finally end 25 years of a single party rule.
The country’s electoral authority (CNE) announced just after midnight on Monday with the majority of votes counted that Mr Maduro had won 51 per cent of the vote, while the main opposition candidate Edmundo González had 44 per cent.
The tally was immediately called into question by the strongman president’s rivals and neighbouring countries who said the results were “difficult to believe”.
“We won and the whole world knows it,” the country’s most popular opposition leader, María Corina Machado, said early on Monday.
Ms Machado, who was barred from running, declared the result “impossible” after multiple independent exit polls and quick counts decisively showed Mr González had 70 per cent of the vote.
“Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” Mr González said.
The announcement of Sunday’s election results was delayed by several hours, and the CNE, which is controlled by government loyalists, said Mr Maduro had secured a majority without releasing tallies from polling booths.
Further doubts over the legitimacy of the election were sowed when official election results showed the total vote amounted to 132.2 per cent, with eight opposition parties gaining exactly 4.6 per cent of the vote each. Another official count broadcast on state TV recorded 109 per cent of votes cast.
Anger was boiling on the streets of Caracas, the capital, as limited demonstrations began before the results were even announced.
Reports from voting booths suggested uninformed men had been blocking access to citizens. In some cases, booths opened late or machines stopped working.
In the city of Sucre, an unofficial voting station was reportedly installed. In Cumana, 50 armed police officers and guards formed a line outside the booth in an apparent bid to discourage anyone voting against the government.
Venezuela was facing international condemnation as world leaders lined up to question the results. Cuba, however, congratulated Maduro for a “historic electoral triumph”.
Gabriel Boric, the leftist leader of Chile, said the results were “difficult to believe”, and demanded early on Monday that the conclusion to the election “fully reflect the popular will expressed at the polls”.
“The international community, of which our country, Chile, is a part, would not accept anything else,” he added on X.
Anthony Blinken, US secretary of state said the US had “serious concerns” about the announced results. “We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”
“The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly,” Mr Blinken said.
Javier Gonzalez-Olaechea, Peru’s foreign minister, said he was recalling the country’s ambassador to Venezuela over the election results declaring Mr Maduro the winner.
Rodrigo Chaves, Costa Rica’s president, rejected Sunday’s results calling them “fraudulent”.
In a televised speech, Mr Maduro called his victory a “triumph of peace, of stability… of the idea of equality” as he denied the mounting accusations of electoral fraud.
Over the past six months, the government had been engaged in dirty tricks, smearing opposition candidates, arresting potential adversaries and discrediting other party’s primaries.
The incumbent’s socialist-inspired party has already been in power for 25 years – but it looked to be the weakest in years after the country’s economic situation reached new low levels.
Oil-rich Venezuela’s economy entered into free fall after Mr Maduro took the helm. Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that soared past 130,000 per cent led first to social unrest and then mass emigration.
Economic sanctions from the US seeking to force Mr Maduro from power after his 2018 re-election – which was widely condemned as neither fair or free – only deepened the crisis.
However, the US agreed to ease sanctions on the country if Mr Maduro agreed to hold free elections that would be monitored by international observers.
With both Mr Maduro’s government and the leading opposition party now claiming victory, weeks of turmoil, protests and possible violence now lie ahead in the crisis-hit country.