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Venezuela’s state-controlled election authority declared victory for Nicolás Maduro on Monday, granting the 61 year-old a third term with 51 per cent of the vote. China, Russia, Iran and Cuba rushed to offer congratulations, with the Kremlin announcing increased cooperation in all areas “including sensitive ones” with Caracas. But it was quickly questioned by Venezuela’s opposition, which said the regime had falsified the count, as well as the US, UK, EU and several countries in Latin America. Antony Blinken said the US had “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.” Edmundo González, the opposition candidate, was leading Maduro by a wide margin in polls ahead of the election. Despite its vast oil reserves, the Venezuelan economy is in crisis. About eight million people – about a third of the population – have fled the country, many heading north to the US border.
“We won and the whole world knows it,” said Maria Corina Machado, the leader of the opposition, who backed González after being barred from running. She said González had won about 70 per cent of the vote. Edison Research published an exit poll showing Gonzalez had won 65 per cent of the vote, with Maduro on 31 per cent; Edison’s Rob Farbman told Reuters the official tally was “silly”.
The European Union called for a detailed counting of votes as reports came in of voter intimidation, unofficial voting stations and official witnesses barred from polling stations. The opposition said they had been given paper “receipts” from only 30 per cent of polling stations.
In the weeks before the election, Maduro’s government arrested members of the González campaign and restricted overseas voting. Only 69,000 of the roughly five million voting-age Venezuelans living abroad were able to cast a vote, according to data collected by the EFE news agency.
Maduro called his victory a “triumph of peace, of stability” and denied accusations of vote manipulation. But this isn’t the first time it’s happened. In 2018, Smartmatic, the electronic voting company which had operated in Venezuela since 2004, ceased operations after it said government turnout figures in 2017 elections were one million higher than the number of votes actually cast.
