Venezuela’s electoral authority, controlled by the ruling regime, said Nicolás Maduro was reelected as the nation’s president for six more years, setting off what is likely to be a clash with opposition parties who believed their massive turnout drive would result in victory.
Maduro won Sunday’s election with 51.2% of the vote, compared with 44.2% for rival Edmundo González, the electoral center said. An exit poll conducted by US firm Edison Research instead had González winning by more than 30 percentage points, lending to suspicions that Maduro’s administration had tampered with the tally.