CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro secured re-election with 51.2% of the votes, the electoral council announced on Sunday, despite allegations of opposition intimidation and concerns over potential fraud. The opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, received 44.2% of the votes according to the CNE electoral body, which largely supports the government.
Maduro, 61, addressed his supporters after the announcement, promising “peace, stability, and justice.” Meanwhile, opposition supporters awaited responses from Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “serious concerns” about the election’s legitimacy, suggesting the results might not reflect the will of Venezuelan voters.
Maduro has been in power since 2013, leading a country whose GDP has plummeted by 80% over the past decade, prompting over seven million citizens to emigrate. His tenure has been marked by accusations of imprisoning critics and harassing the opposition, fostering an increasingly authoritarian regime.
Gonzalez Urrutia replaced the popular Machado after she was excluded from the race by authorities loyal to Maduro. Machado had urged voters to remain vigilant during the vote count to prevent fraud.
Despite opinion polls suggesting otherwise, the government maintained confidence in Maduro’s victory, supported by a loyal electoral apparatus, military leadership, and state institutions. A Venezuelan NGO reported that Caracas was holding 305 political prisoners and had arrested 135 opposition-linked individuals since January. Gonzalez Urrutia emphasized the opposition’s preparedness to defend the vote and expressed trust in the armed forces to respect the people’s decision.
The election used machines that produced paper receipts for verification, with electronic votes sent directly to a centralized CNE database. The opposition deployed approximately 90,000 volunteer election monitors nationwide.
Sunday’s election was part of a mediated agreement reached last year between the government and opposition, which led to a temporary easing of U.S. sanctions imposed after Maduro’s 2018 re-election, previously deemed a sham by many Western and Latin American countries. However, the sanctions were reinstated after Maduro failed to honor the agreed conditions.
The economic crisis in Venezuela has led to severe shortages and significant migration pressures on the U.S. southern border. The government attributes these hardships to sanctions, while observers also cite corruption and inefficiency. Machado warned that if Maduro retained power, millions more Venezuelans might join the exodus.
Concerns about the election’s fairness were heightened when Caracas barred several international observers, including four former Latin American presidents, at the last minute. Foreign ministers from seven Latin American countries called for the electoral process to respect the Venezuelan people’s popular will.
Out of the 21 million registered voters, only an estimated 17 million still residing in Venezuela were eligible to vote.
