- Maduro’s candidacy has won 51.2% of the votes and 44.2% the opposition’s main candidate, Edmundo González, according to data from the National Electoral Council of Venezuela. The opposition has denounced fraud, and chavism has called for respect for the results of the vote. This is the third consecutive presidential election won by Maduro and in which he attends the Senate.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) has released the data with 80% of the votes scrutinized in the early morning of Monday. According to them, Chavism has again been among the two main candidates with a chance to win the elections, with a seven-point advantage over the opposition. Nicolás Maduro, candidate of the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), obtained 51.2% of the votes, while Edmundo González was made with 44.2% of the Unified Democratic Platform (PUD). Participation has been 59%. It is the third term for Maduro, Chavism first came to the government in 1999, at the hand of Hugo Chávez.
Allegations of coup and electoral fraud
"Venezuela has just elected president, Edmundo González Urrutia. We have won and everyone knows.” These are statements by María Corina Machado, who, beside her, made Edmundo González, a candidate for lehendakari. Machado is the main leader of the opposition, but her candidacy was disabled by the courts of Venezuela to be investigated. Machado has assured that González has won 70% of the votes and Maduro 30%. The leader of the opposition has pointed out that in the coming days "actions in defense of the truth" will be announced.
Chavism has denounced before the elections that the right-wing opposition was fuelling the coup, previously questioning the credibility of the results. For example, last weekend a delegation from the Spanish pp traveled from Madrid to Venezuela to try to be an "observer" in the elections, but without the necessary permits. When they were denied entry to the airport, the pp denounced that this raises doubts about the outcome of the elections.
Positioning of countries
The official results of the Venezuelan elections have been accepted and congratulated by progressive and left-wing governments on the continent, while right-wing governments have questioned or denied the results directly.
“Today the dignity and bravery of the Venezuelan people has won over the pressures and manipulations,” said Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Bolivia's president, Luis Arce, has stated that Maduro's "victory" is an excellent way to pay tribute to Hugo Chávez. Maduro has also been congratulated by the presidents of Honduras and Nicaragua, Xiomara Castro or Daniel Ortega.
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, has written on social networks "was the dictator Maduro!" before we know the results. The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, has described as "fraud" the appointment of Maduro as president; "a victory cannot be accepted if there is no confidence in the means and ways to achieve it", said the president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle; the results are "difficult to believe". The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, has expressed his "deep concern" about the veracity of the official results of the elections.