Venezuela announced the victory of Nicolas Maduro (51.2 percent) in Sunday’s presidential elections, amid allegations of electoral fraud by the opposition, which reportedly secured 44.2 percent of the votes.
Contrary to all predictions from pre-election polls and exit polls, the Venezuelan electoral authority declared the ruling party’s victory after an extended delay in the vote count.
After halting the transmission of data, an act denounced by Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia’s campaign, the electoral authority released the controversial official results. Meanwhile, the tension between supporters of Chavism and the opposition manifested in street confrontations, highlighting the deep polarization of these elections.
The results took six hours to be made public after the voting points closed. The electoral authority reported attacks on the data transmission system and estimated voter turnout at 51 percent, while speculation suggested it was closer to 80 percent.
Nicolas Maduro’s victory generates controversy in Venezuela
Long hours after the official closing of the polling stations, the Venezuelan electoral body finally published the results of the voting. In an eternal afternoon and night, both the official candidacy of Nicolas Maduro and the opposition candidacy of Edmundo Gonzalez showed signs of optimism, without being able to speak of results due to the express prohibition of the Venezuelan electoral law.
Exit polls circulating in some media and among the Venezuelan opposition indicated a clear victory for Gonzalez Urrutia. However, the delay in the official publication of the results suggested that these outcomes were not accepted by the Venezuelan government.
Finally, in a growing context of denunciations of “irregularities” and manipulation by the opposition, the victory of the ruling party was announced.
First reactions to the announcement of the results
While Nicolas Maduro addressed thousands of supporters, asserting that the elections were conducted in full compliance with democratic principles and with total transparency, the opposition labeled the ruling party’s victory as “fraud”.
Outside Venezuela, one of the first to speak out was Chilean President Gabriel Boric. “The Maduro regime must understand that the results it publishes are difficult to believe (…) we demand total transparency of the minutes and the process”, wrote the Chilean president. He added, “From Chile, we will not recognize any result that is not verifiable”.
In the United States, Republican Senator Marco Rubio responded to the announcement of the results on his social networks. “The only ‘attack’ on the elections in Venezuela is the fraud carried out by electoral authorities, which is controlled by the narco-terrorist Maduro regime,” said the senator.
From Colombia, in the absence of a reaction from President Gustavo Petro, high-ranking government official Gustavo Bolivar called on the Venezuelan electoral authority to “allow a vote-by-vote scrutiny so that the result is validated and peace prevails in our brother country”.
The article was first published in Colombia One
