Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election by the government-controlled electoral authority – a result that appeared to dash opposition hopes of ending 25 years of socialist rule and was immediately contested by his political rivals and several governments in the region.
After a six-hour delay in releasing the results of Sunday’s election sparked an outpouring of concern from South American governments, the national electoral council claimed Maduro had won with 51.21% of votes compared with 44.2% for his rival, the former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.
The council said that with about 80% of votes counted, Maduro had secured more than 5 million compared with González’s 4.4 million.
“I am Nicolás Maduro Moros – the re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela … and I will defend our democracy, our law and our people,” the 61-year-old authoritarian proclaimed as he addressed supporters in the capital, Caracas.
Maduro dedicated his win to his mentor, the late president Hugo Chávez, who anointed Maduro as his successor shortly before his premature death in 2013. “Long live Chávez. Chávez is alive!” Maduro shouted.
The result was celebrated by Maduro allies including the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez who hailed a “historic victory” and called it a triumph of “the dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people”. “The people spoke and the revolution won,” he tweeted.
Bolivia’s leftwing leader, Luis Arce, also celebrated the result of an election that was held on what would have been Chávez’s 70th birthday. “What a great way to remember the Comandante Hugo Chávez,” Arce tweeted.
But there was condemnation and questioning from elsewhere in the region, with many convinced the election had been stolen. (The Guardian)
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