Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's camp announced today that it had achieved a landslide majority in municipal elections that were boycotted by the main opposition. This was reported by Agence France-Presse, BTA reports.
In a televised address, Maduro said that his political party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (USPV), had won in 285 of the country's 335 municipalities.
The National Electoral Council, often criticized for its closeness to the ruling party, announced that about 6 million people voted in the elections, which equates to a voter turnout of approximately 44%.
The AFP agency notes that today's vote coincides with the first anniversary of the presidential election in which Maduro was declared the winner. At the time, the electoral commission did not disclose specific data on the number of votes cast, and later said that it had fallen victim to a hacker attack. A claim that, according to many experts, is unconvincing.
The opposition forces insist that they actually won the elections and accuse the authorities of large-scale fraud. Most of the opposition also boycotted the parliamentary elections in May, in which, according to the electoral commission, Maduro's party won 253 of the 285 seats in the legislature.