The Venezuelan National Electoral Office has declared Nicolas Maduro the winner of the presidential election in Venezuela, reports the headline in the "Financial Times", BTA writes in its press review.
The British publication notes that the opposition has condemned what it says are serious irregularities in the vote count.
Public opinion polls before the vote and exit polls on election day predicted a big victory for the opposition. However, Elvis Amoroso, the head of the National Electoral Office, said Maduro had secured 51.2 percent of the vote with 80 percent of ballots counted, while his main opposition challenger, Edmundo González, received 44.2 percent.
Amoroso described the results as "devastating and irreversible" and quickly congratulated Maduro on his victory, saying "terrorist acts" of sabotage against the voting system had delayed the publication of the results by several hours. Maduro supporters gathered outside the presidential palace to celebrate.
Delsa Solojano, the main opposition representative in the electoral body, said earlier that "a significant number of polling stations are expelling our observers, and in others they are refusing to hand over the results." Venezuelan law states that observers have the right to remain in polling stations until they have verified the vote count and received a printed copy of the results, the Financial Times reported.
The opposition, which sent thousands of ordinary citizens to monitor polling stations across the country for yesterday's election, is expected to challenge the results of the vote, the newspaper reported. "Washington Post".
During the vote count, opposition leaders denounced what they said was a government order to polling station officials to refuse to hand over printouts of the results to opposition observers.
Alexis Cedeño, the opposition campaign coordinator in Caracas, said that officials at most polling stations in the capital had refused opposition observers paper copies used to verify the machine count, the American publication said.
Polls released after the polls closed last night showed opposition candidate Gonzalez with 65 percent of the vote, more than double Maduro's 31 percent, according to "Edison Research", a Somerville, New Jersey-based polling firm. agency.
“The results are undeniable“, Gonzalez said in a post on the social network “Ex”. “The country has chosen peaceful change”, he added, quoted by the “Washington Post”.
As night fell, violence broke out in some polling stations. When opposition supporters at the “Andres Bello” high school in Caracas complained that they were denied access to the vote count after a group of at least 150 Maduro supporters arrived on motorcycles chanting pro-government slogans, the American publication notes.
According to "Edison Research", which interviewed more than 6,800 voters in 100 locations, Gonzalez is ahead of Maduro among men and women, among voters in rural, suburban and urban areas, as well as among all age groups.
"Our exit poll predicted a clear victory for Edmundo Gonzalez", said Rob Farbman, executive vice president of the sociological agency, adding: "The opposition candidate had broad support across almost all demographic groups".
There were long lines at several polling stations. It was not possible to determine whether this reflected the higher voter turnout that the opposition says should be the key to victory, but some voters in Caracas said they had not seen such long lines in many years, the Washington Post noted.
At 12:40 p.m. local time yesterday, Maduro addressed the nation to announce the activation of Operation “Remate” – a word that means “finish” – a government-led effort to attract supporters to the polling stations. Maduro's campaign and his supporters have been calling people to pressure them to vote and offering them food and supplies.
“Let's mobilize with force“, Maduro said in a message broadcast on state television, adding: “Let's vote with force, as planned, and with the force of social programs“.
The government aid has flowed into the rural eastern state of Delta Amacuro. In one indigenous community there, people were offered bags of food in exchange for support, Yoxamar Jimenez, an opposition election observer, told The Washington Post.
A former diplomat, Gonzalez was unknown to most Venezuelans until a few months ago. But as the election approached, polls predicted he could defeat Maduro by double digits.
Maduro’s campaign portrayed the opposition as a far-right threat that would bring instability. Maduro himself has warned of a "bloodbath" if he loses the election.
"The fate of Venezuela depends on our victory," he told a rally this month, adding: "If we want to avoid a bloodbath or a fratricidal civil war provoked by fascists, we must guarantee the biggest electoral victory in history."
As the polls closed last night, Jorge Rodriguez, a senior politician from the Chavista camp, told journalists in the capital Caracas that he was confident that Maduro would return to power for a third six-year term, the Guardian reports. "The voice of the people has spoken," Rodriguez said, predicting that his camp had achieved a "great victory."
Similar was the confidence of supporters of Maduro's presidential rival, the until recently little-known former diplomat Gonzalez. He was supported by prominent conservative parliamentarian Maria Corina Machado, who he ran in his place after she was barred from running.
"We will celebrate peacefully," Gonzalez told reporters as citizens of the oil-rich South American country eagerly awaited the results.
The 74-year-old former ambassador sent a video message to his supporters urging them to vote. "Today is the day. "Today is your day," Gonzalez told them.
Maduro, who was elected president after Hugo Chavez's untimely death from cancer and returned to office in a widely criticized 2018 election boycotted by the opposition, expressed confidence in his success as he visited the late leader's grave in Caracas at dawn yesterday to lay a wreath, the Guardian reports.
Dressed in a pink guayabera and accompanied by first lady Cilia Flores, Maduro compared the election, which was scheduled for Chavez's 70th birthday, to one of the most famous military battles in Venezuela's struggle for independence from Spain. "This is our battle of Carabobo and we are heading straight for victory," he said, dedicating his campaign to Chavez, under whom he served as foreign minister and vice president. “This victory is yours, Comandante!“, Maduro wrote in “Ex”.
A few hours later, after casting his vote, Maduro addressed reporters wearing a tracksuit top printed with the colors of the national flag. “I am sure that everything will go well and that tomorrow will be a wonderful day,”, said Maduro, 61.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay said they were closely following events in Venezuela and believed it was extremely important that the results reflect the will of Venezuelan voters.
“The United States stands with the people of Venezuela, who cast their votes in today's historic presidential election. The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected,“ wrote yesterday in “Ex” US Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Venezuelan opposition has declared victory in the presidential election, saying that its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won 70 percent of the vote and has refused to recognize the results announced by the National Electoral Council, which declared incumbent President Nicolas Maduro the winner, according to the French newspaper “Le Monde”.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric told “Ex” that the re-election of Nicolas Maduro is “hard to believe“. “The Maduro regime must understand that the results it publishes are hard to believe“, Boric said, adding that “Chile will not recognize any result that cannot be verified“. In a press release published on the same social network, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chavez Robles said he "rejects" the Venezuelan president's declaration of a "false" victory.
“Now that the vote is over, it is critical that every vote is counted fairly and transparently. We call on the electoral authorities to release the detailed vote count to ensure transparency and accountability“, said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who expressed “serious doubts“ about the accuracy of the vote results. “We have serious concerns that the announced result does not reflect the will or the vote of the Venezuelan people”, he told a news conference in Japan.
The oil-rich country, long one of the most successful in Latin America, is now mired in an unprecedented economic and social crisis: oil production has collapsed, GDP has fallen by 80 percent in 10 years, there is hyperinflation, poverty, and the health and education systems are in ruins. According to UN estimates, more than 7 million Venezuelans have fled the country due to the political and economic crisis, Le Monde reports.
The government blames the "criminal blockade" for all economic problems. The US has tightened sanctions in an attempt to remove Maduro from power after his controversial re-election in 2018 in elections that the opposition says were marred by fraud and led to violently suppressed protests, the French publication recalls.