Getty ImagesPresident Nicolás Maduro has won Venezuela’s presidential election, according to partial results released by the electoral commission.
Ives Amoroso, a close Maduro ally and president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said that with 80% of the votes counted, President Maduro received 51.20% of the vote, while his main rival The vote rate was 44.02%.
Venezuela’s opposition has claimed widespread fraud in the vote count and vowed to challenge the results.
It has united behind candidate Edmundo González in a bid to oust Mr Maduro after 11 years in power.
Maduro said in a speech to cheering supporters in Caracas that his re-election was a “triumph for peace and stability.”
He praised Venezuela’s electoral system, calling it transparent, and derided the opposition, which he said “screams about fraud” in every election.
After the results were announced, the U.S. Secretary of State expressed skepticism. Antony Blinken said the United States was “gravely concerned that the results announced did not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people”.
Meanwhile, Cuba, a close ally of Maduro’s government, said “the people have spoken and the revolution has won.”
The opposition has deployed thousands of witnesses to polling stations across the country to be able to announce its own vote tallies.
However, a spokesman for the coalition led by González said witnesses at many polling stations were “forced to leave”.
The opposition also called on supporters to remain vigilant at polling centers to verify the counting process in the “decisive moment” after the closures, amid widespread fears that the government will try to steal votes.
GettyPolls show Mr Gonzalez with a wide lead over Mr Maduro.
Many voters say they want change after 25 years of power by the socialist PSUV party – first under the late President Hugo Chávez and then after his death from cancer in 2013. Under Nicolás Maduro.
Under their leadership, the PSUV controlled not only the executive and legislative branches, but also much of the judiciary.
The last election in 2018 was widely seen as neither free nor fair, and in the run-up to this election there were widespread concerns that polls may also be plagued by irregularities.
President Maduro has further fueled these concerns, saying he will win “by any means necessary.”
Despite this, the opposition still showed a positive attitude in the election, believing that if their supporters participated collectively in the election, it would be difficult for the government to “steal the election.”
Voting in Venezuela is electronic. Voters press the button assigned to their preferred candidate on a voting machine.
Electronic results are sent to CNE headquarters, but machines also print paper receipts, which are then placed in ballot boxes.
By law, political parties can send witnesses to each polling station to count these paper receipts, but many parties are unable to do so.
The opposition said they had received less than a third of the printed receipts.
Their plan is to monitor these statistics to see if they match those published by the CNE.
