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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has won a third term, according to the country's electoral authority, despite exit polls suggesting a decisive opposition victory.
According to a report on Sky News, Elvis Amoroso, head of the National Electoral Council, announced that Maduro garnered 51% of the vote, while his main opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, received 44%. Amoroso stated that approximately 80% of ballots had been counted, attributing delays to "aggression" against the electoral data transmission system.
Maduro declared his re-election a triumph of peace and stability, reaffirming his stance that Venezuela's electoral system is transparent.
Contrary to official results, Gonzalez claimed victory, stating, "Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened." Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado asserted that Gonzalez had an "overwhelming" margin based on 40% of voting tallies.
"The results cannot be hidden. The country has peacefully chosen a change," Gonzalez tweeted before the official announcement.
Opposition hopes had surged following several exit polls—prohibited under Venezuelan law—that indicated a favorable outcome for Gonzalez. However, the electoral authority, loyal to Maduro, withheld immediate release of official tallies from the 30,000 polling stations, hampering the opposition's ability to contest the results.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Venezuelan authorities to provide a detailed vote tabulation to ensure transparency. Speaking from Tokyo, Blinken expressed "serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people," and emphasized the need for fair and transparent counting.
Regional reactions were mixed. Chilean President Gabriel Boric stated that "Maduro's regime must understand that the results are hard to believe" and asserted that Santiago "will not recognize any result that is not verifiable." Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo voiced "many doubts" about the outcome, while Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou labeled it an "open secret" that Maduro would "win" regardless of the actual results.
Conversely, the presidents of Cuba, Honduras, and Bolivia welcomed Maduro's third consecutive six-year term.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell joined calls for Caracas to release detailed voting data.
Gonzalez, a retired diplomat, was relatively unknown before stepping in for Maria Corina Machado, who was barred from running by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice in April.
[Information sourced from Sky News]
