President Nicolas Maduro addressed supporters on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of the Venezuelan presidential election in Caracas.
Fernando Vergara/AP
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Fernando Vergara/AP
BOGOTA, Colombia — Election officials claimed Venezuela’s deeply unpopular President Nicolas Maduro won a third term in elections on Sunday, sparking accusations that his dictatorial regime committed massive fraud to steal a victory from opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.
After hours of delays and uncertainty, Elvis Amoroso, president of the National Electoral Council and a close aide to Maduro, appeared before reporters just after midnight on Monday to declare that with 80% of the votes counted, Maduro had won with 51% to Gonzalez’s 44%.
But opposition leader Maria Corina Machado claimed that Gonzalez, a 74-year-old former diplomat who ran in place of Machado after the government barred him from running, won 70% of the vote to Maduro’s 30%.
“Venezuela has a new president, Edmundo Gonzalez,” Machado told a packed news conference in Caracas.
As evidence, Machado pointed to exit polls and preliminary results, as well as paper receipts from voting machines, that showed Gonzalez heading for a landslide victory. An exit poll published by the U.S. firm Edison Research showed Gonzalez leading Maduro 65% to 31%, while nearly every pre-election poll had projected him to win by a landslide.
“We won every state, every demographic,” Machado said. “It was overwhelming. We won and the whole world knows it. Even the administration knows what happened.”
The National Electoral Commission did not declare Maduro the winner until six hours after the polls closed, suggesting that Maduro’s aides were discussing how to handle the results. With his government unable to thwart the opposition’s campaign with dirty tricks and banning Machado, many political analysts expected Maduro to resort to trying to steal the election.
Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of American States, said Maduro’s claimed victory was “100 percent expected.”
Maduro, 61, was first elected president in 2013 following the death of Hugo Chavez, leader of Venezuela’s 1999 socialist revolution. But he is widely blamed for leading Venezuela into its worst economic crisis in history, causing about 8 million people – about a quarter of the population – to flee the country. Maduro also faces drug trafficking and terrorism indictments by the United States and his regime is under investigation for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
“I have a clear conscience,” Maduro told supporters gathered at the Miraflores presidential palace, “and with this new term of office that you have bestowed upon me, I pledge to give my life to transform Venezuela and lead it towards a prosperous future of economic growth, peace and social well-being.”
The Biden administration and other foreign governments, which have threatened to reimpose sanctions on Venezuela’s vital oil industry, immediately complained of fraud.
“We have serious concerns that the results announced do not reflect the will and vote of the Venezuelan people,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “It is critical that every vote is counted fairly and transparently, that electoral authorities share information with the opposition and election observers immediately and without delay, and that electoral authorities release a detailed vote tally.”
Chilean President Gabriel Boric wrote to X: “The Maduro regime must understand that the results they announce are hard to believe. Chile will not accept any results that cannot be verified.”
Brazil, Colombia and other Latin American countries expressed similar concerns.
Anger and frustration with Maduro was palpable on Sunday, when several government supporters loudly booed him as they came to vote at polling stations. Some Venezuelans, convinced that Gonzalez would win, chanted what has become a popular opposition slogan: “The regime will fall. The regime will fall. This regime will fall!”
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro celebrate after election officials declared him the winner of the presidential election, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Caracas, Venezuela.
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Some Venezuelans were so eager to vote for the opposition that they lined up at polling stations on the eve of the election: Elidio Santana, who sells bottled water on the streets of Caracas, waited in line for four hours to vote for Gonzalez.
“We’ve been waiting 25 years for a change of government,” Santana said, adding that a few more hours didn’t matter. “We’re tired of this. We need change in this country.”
There are an estimated 5.5 million Venezuelans of voting age living abroad, but only around 69,000 have been able to register due to cumbersome procedures put in place by the Maduro regime. One migrant who managed to vote was Carolina Martinez, a 50-year-old nurse from neighboring Colombia, who returned to Venezuela to vote. She predicted that a Gonzalez win would encourage Venezuelans living abroad to return home.
“There are many people who want to go back to Venezuela and see their country prosper again,” said Martinez, who also has four sons living abroad.
But with both sides claiming victory, many opposition supporters have vowed to protest in the streets, and Venezuela could face prolonged unrest. Gonzalez urged the opposition to remain peaceful while he collects evidence that he won the election, such as paper receipts for voting machines.
“Our fight continues,” Gonzalez said at a news conference early Monday. “We will not stop until the will of the people is respected.”
Carrie Kahn contributed from Caracas.
