In controversial ruling, Venezuelan regime declares Maduro winner of pivotal election

Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner early Monday morning of the country’s pivotal presidential election, in a controversial announcement made by the government-controlled electoral council that was immediately challenged by the opposition.

Exit polls by credible independent firms during the voting Sunday showed the opposition winning by as much as a 2-to-1 margin.

The announcement sets up Maduro for a third presidential term that would expire in 2031 and that would extend into a third decade the socialist revolution initiated by his predecessor and mentor, the late president Hugo Chávez.

The head of the country’s National Electorate Council, Elvis Amoroso, said Maduro beat opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez 51.2% to 44.2%, based on data obtained from 80% of the voting stations. The other eight candidates competing in the election obtained 4.6% of the vote among them, the council said.

However, Gonzalez and his political mentor, Maria Corina Machado, immediately questioned the results announced by the council, pointing out that the data they had received directly from the electoral agency, before it halted the process without explanation, showed Gonzalez with 70% of the vote compared to barely 30% for Maduro.

“It is impossible,” said Machado referring to the result announced by Amoroso, adding that it was a crude lie that seeks to hide the truth plain to all Venezuelans: that Gonzalez “obtained the largest margin of votes in a presidential election in the history of Venezuela.”

She added that three exit polls carried out by well known independent firms had provided similar results during the day. Edison Research, a respected U.S. firm used by major media to conduct exit polls in U.S. presidential elections, was among the pollsters that reported a comfortable victory for Gonzalez.

Opposition leaders had previously warned that Venezuelan officials had been ejecting their representatives from polling stations before the votes were counted and that they had only been provided with the results of 30% of the vote, a number that later rose to 40%.

Machado asked his followers to continue waiting at the polling stations to receive the rest of the voting records and finish gathering evidence needed to document fraud.

Maduro, for his part, asked the opposition to respect the pronouncement of the electoral authority.

“I ask for respect for the Constitution, the public powers and for the sovereign life of Venezuela,” he said in front of dozens of supporters who gathered near the presidential palace to listen to his victory speech.

After saying that he is willing to give his life “to carry out all the changes that this country needs,” he assured listeners he will work in his third presidential term “to rescue all the rights violated by the economic war” — a reference to sanctions imposed by numerous countries in recent years, including the U.S.

Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio dismissed the results announced by the regime. “The Maduro regime in #Venezuela has just carried out the most predictable and ridiculous sham election in modern history,” he posted on on his X account.

The opinion was shared by representatives of the Venezuelan community in South Florida.

Ernesto Ackerman, president of the organization Independent Venezuelan American Citizens, IVAC, described what happened as a desperate reaction of people who know they would go to prison if they lost the election. “They were not going to give up power so easily.”

“We are going to denounce this, and the entire world has to support the Venezuelan community that worked hard to get rid of this regime and now we find ourselves in this situation,” said the activist, who was at González’s campaign headquarters at José Martí Park in Miami-Dade County.

For Venezuelan activist José Hernández, who also attended the rally in José Martí Park, Maduro did not win in any municipality or state, and now “they come out with this.

“I don’t know how long it can last,” he added, saying no ruler can govern while having 70% of the country against him.

“What we did was fight, what we have always done, in a peaceful, democratic and constitutional way. They are the ones who are not democrats, and they demonstrated it again,” Hernández said.

Most credible polls released ahead of the election had González easily beating Maduro by more than 30 points. The popularity of the Venezuelan strongman had fallen dramatically in the past few years amid the drastic decline in the nation’s standard of living and his increasingly authoritarian rule.

The opposition, however, was concerned that Maduro would use the control its regime has over electoral officials to steal the election, an accusation that was made against the socialist ruler in 2019 and which led a coalition of 50 nations headed by the United States to reject his government then.

Venezuela, once considered as one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America, is currently one of most impoverished, with poverty levels that currently rivals that of Haiti. During Maduro’s tenure at the helm of government, the country’s GDP has shrunk by an estimated 80%, in what has often been attributed to rampant corruption and gross mismanagement.

El Nuevo Herald reporter Sonia Osorio contributed to this story