Venezuela presidential election | Maduro declared winner amid cloud of doubt

(Caracas) Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday, as his opponents prepared to contest the results of a vote that could have marked the end of 25 years of one-party rule.

Greeted by a small fireworks display, Mr Maduro stepped out onto a stage at the presidential palace in Caracas to celebrate his victory with his supporters chanting “Vamos Nico”.

Maduro then accused unidentified foreign enemies of hacking the voting system.

“This is not the first time they have tried to violate the peace of the republic,” he told the several hundred supporters gathered. He gave no evidence for his accusations, but promised that those who tried to foment violence in Venezuela would face “justice.”

Shortly after midnight, the National Electoral Council declared that Nicolás Maduro had won 51% of the vote, beating opposition candidate Edmundo González, who won 44%. It said the results were based on a total of 80% of polling stations, marking an “irreversible” trend.

But the electoral authority, controlled by Mr Maduro’s supporters, did not immediately release official results from each of the country’s 15,797 polling stations, hampering the opposition’s ability to challenge the results after it claimed it had records of only 30% of ballot boxes.

The delay in announcing the results – six hours after the polls were scheduled to close – indicates the difficulties within the government over how to proceed, as the president’s opponents claimed victory early in the evening.

Opposition representatives said the results obtained from campaign representatives at polling stations showed that Edmundo González had beaten Nicolás Maduro.

Unlikely opponent

Mr Maduro, who was seeking a third term, faced his toughest and most unlikely opponent of his career: Edmundo González, a retired diplomat who was unknown to voters before being chosen in April as a last-minute replacement for the powerful Maria Corina Machado.

Early Monday morning, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed “serious doubts” about the accuracy of the results. “We have serious concerns that the outcome that has been announced does not reflect the will or the vote of the Venezuelan people,” Blinken added at a news conference in Japan.

Chile’s leftist president, Gabriel Boric, also questioned the results.

Earlier, US Vice President Kamala Harris offered her support to voters. “The United States stands with the Venezuelan people who cast their votes in today’s historic presidential election,” she wrote on the social network X. “The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected.”

Voters began lining up at some polling stations across the country before dawn on Sunday, sharing water, coffee and snacks for several hours.

The election will have repercussions across the Americas. Both opponents and supporters of the government have expressed interest in joining the exodus of the 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already left their country for opportunities abroad if Mr. Maduro wins another six-year term.

Nicolás Maduro and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who accuse their policies of driving down wages, fueling hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families because of immigration.

Divisions and boycotts

The 61-year-old president faced an opposition that managed to rally behind a single candidate after years of party divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed his ambitions to topple the ruling party.

M^me Machado was barred by the president’s Supreme Court from running for office for 15 years. After being barred from running for president, she chose a university professor as her replacement on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council barred her from registering as well. That’s when Mr. González, a political newcomer, was chosen.

Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves and once had the most advanced economy in Latin America. But the country has been in freefall since Mr. Maduro took the helm. Plunging oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation that has exceeded 130,000% led first to social unrest and then to mass emigration.

The economic sanctions imposed by the United States aimed at forcing the president from power after his re-election in 2018 – which the United States and dozens of other countries have called illegitimate – have only deepened the crisis.

Nicolás Maduro’s pitch to voters in this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable exchange rate and lower inflation rates.

With Agence France-Presse