Today, the Supreme Electoral Authority of Venezuela (CNE) declared longtime authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro the winner of Sunday’s presidential election.
The opposition refused to recognize this, saying its candidate Edmundo González Urrutia won with 70 percent of the vote, foreign agencies said. American Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and a number of representatives of Latin American countries expressed doubts about the announced result, while Maduro, on the other hand, has already been congratulated on his victory by, for example, Russia, China and Cuba. The EU and some other countries have called on the Venezuelan authorities to ensure transparency in the counting of votes.
The Central Electoral Commission, which is under the control of Maduro’s government, said the president won 51 percent of the vote, while the joint candidate of the opposition parties, González, got 44 percent. The numbers, according to the CNE, were based on results from 80 percent of polling stations and reflected an irreversible trend, the AP agency wrote.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado refused to recognize the result announced by the CNE. According to her, González won 70 percent of the vote, and this is shown by census data to which the opposition has access. “Venezuela has a new elected president, and that is Edmundo González Urrutia,” she said. “All the rules were broken here,” González said of the election process, but so far he has refused to call on his supporters to take to the streets.
Maduro addressed his supporters after the partial results were announced. He described the victory in the elections as a triumph of national independence and the dignity of the Venezuelan people. According to him, Venezuela was “hit by a massive hacker attack” on the night of today, which disrupted the work of the electoral authorities. “And we already know what country he came from,” Maduro said without naming the country.
US Secretary of State Blinken expressed “serious concern that the announced results do not correspond to the will and votes of the people of Venezuela” after the CNE representatives spoke. Chilean President Boric said that the results are hard to believe. “We demand complete transparency of the census and the (election) process,” stated Boric on the X network.
“It is essential to guarantee the complete transparency of the electoral process, including a detailed total of votes and access to protocols from precincts,” stated on the X network, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell. “What we expect is total transparency,” said Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares. Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo called for an independent audit of the election results, which would dispel doubts.
Maduro, on the other hand, has already been congratulated by the main allies of the current Venezuelan government – Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Bolivia and Honduras. “The people have spoken and the revolution has won,” said Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. China, which also maintains close relations with Caracas, congratulated the authoritarian president. The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin wants to continue working with Venezuela, led by Maduro.
A number of Latin American countries, such as Peru, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Guatemala, rejected the results or expressed strong doubts about their credibility. “Argentina will not recognize another fraud and hopes that the (Venezuelan) armed forces will protect democracy and the will of the people this time,” Argentine President Javier Milei said.
The announcement of the results came after several hours of confusion over whether voting had even ended in all constituencies. Polling stations were supposed to start closing at 6:00 p.m. local time on Sunday (midnight CET), but according to the AP, some polling stations appeared to be open six hours later. In the meantime, the opposition encouraged supporters to follow the counting of votes in individual precincts, and candidate González even on the social network X he declaredthat Venezuela “chose change”.
Polls before the new vote showed González, a one-time diplomat, in a significant lead, and the Spanish daily El País noted that it was almost impossible for Maduro to win the election in a regular manner. According to Reuters, two polls conducted among voters at polling stations indicated that the opposition candidate would win 65 percent of the vote.
The oil-rich Latin American country, which once boasted the most advanced economy in the region, has plunged into a deep economic crisis under Maduro’s leadership, and nearly eight million people have left in the past decade. The president, from the PSUV socialist party, was running for a third term in Sunday’s election after winning an election in 2018 without the participation of the main opposition parties and some countries led by the United States not recognizing his victory.
Virtually unknown until this year, González became the candidate of the opposition bloc at the last minute after the candidacy of Machado, who then remained at the forefront of the campaign, was blocked. On election night, she called on the Venezuelan military to stand “on the right side of history.” “The people of Venezuela have spoken: They don’t want Maduro,” she said.
Source: zpravy.tiscali.cz
