Caracas, Venezuela
CNN
—
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and his political opponents both claimed to have won the presidential election on Monday, as the United States and multiple regional nations voiced skepticism about official results handing victory to the strongman leader.
With 80% of votes counted, Maduro won more than 51% of the vote, besting the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who gained more than 44%, according to a statement by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
But the opposition painted a very different picture of the results. Opposition leader María Corina Machado said in a news conference that their own records showed their candidate Edmundo González Urrutia had received 70% of the vote against Maduro’s 30%.
“We won, and everyone knows it,” Machado said, adding that the opposition would “defend the truth.”
“The entire international community knows what happened in Venezuela and how people voted for change,” she said.
Gonzalez, also at the news conference, alleged that rules had been violated during the election.
If Maduro takes office, it will be for a third consecutive six-year term – representing the continuity of “Chavismo” in power, which started in 1999 at the hands of former president Hugo Chávez. Maduro has been in power since Chávez’s death in 2013.
The vote has come at a crucial moment for Venezuela, an oil-rich nation that experienced the worst economic crash of a peacetime country in recent history. Maduro has blamed foreign sanctions against his regime, saying Venezuela is victim of an “economic war.”
Meanwhile, the opposition — which has been galvanized this election cycle, posing the most significant threat to Maduro’s grip on power in years — had promised to restore Venezuela’s democracy and rebuild the economy if they won.
Throughout the election process, there have been mounting concerns that the opposition will not see a fair contest, as Maduro’s government controls all public institutions in Venezuela including the Supreme Court – which could be the final arbiter on any claim of electoral fraud. The government has also been accused of rigging votes in the past, which it denied.
Tears and celebrations
Voters had turned out in droves, with many saying they would leave the country if Maduro won — pointing to violent repression and economic collapse under his rule.
After the results were announced, Maduro described it as a “triumph of peace, stability, republican ideals, and the ideas of equality.”
“They could not overcome the sanctions, they could not overcome the aggressions, the threats, they could not now and will never be able to overcome the dignity of the people of Venezuela,” he said during his public speech, referring to his political opponents.
The results announced by the election authorities were met with mixed emotions in the capital Caracas, with Maduro supporters cheering and celebrating outside the president’s official residence. Meanwhile, opposition supporters were seen crying and hugging on the streets.
Earlier Sunday evening, opposition leaders claimed there were election irregularities — including opposition witnesses being denied access to the CNE headquarters as the authority counted votes, and the CNE allegedly halting data being sent from local polling stations to their central location to prevent more votes from being processed.
The run up to the vote was also marred by allegations of foul play.
The election campaign saw at least 71 people arbitrarily detained – the majority of whom provided some sort of service to the opposition – and a dozen online media outlets were blocked within the country, according to human rights organization Laboratorio de Paz.
The government also created significant impediments for Venezuelans abroad to vote, including widely unattainable passport and residency requirements.
CNN has reached out to the CNE, which has not responded to the opposition’s allegations.
After the CNE announced Maduro’s win, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”
He added that it was “critical” for votes to be counted fairly and transparently, and called for the CNE to publish its vote tabulations.
The opposition’s accusations may cast doubt on Venezuela returning to the international stage after Maduro pledged last year to hold free and fair elections in US-brokered talks, in exchange for sanctions relief.
The results were also met with mixed reactions across the region. The presidents of Peru, Chile, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Argentina and Uruguay, all either denounced or cast doubt on the results, with several saying they would not recognize Maduro’s win. Ahead of the election, many Latin American leaders had urged Maduro to commit to stepping down if he lost.
But some of Venezuela’s partners congratulated Maduro on his win, including the Bolivian, Honduran and Cuban presidents.
Earlier Sunday night, a government statement shared online by the Venezuelan foreign minister decried what it called foreign “intervention” against the election, pointing the finger at a number of countries that had criticized the results – including Argentina, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and more.