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 US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said his government had “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people”.
“It’s critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that the electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of votes. The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly,” Blinken added.
Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, tweeted: “Maduro’s regime must understand that the results it has published are hard to believe … Chile will not recognize any result that is not verifiable.”
Peru’s foreign minister, Javier González-Olaechea, said his government also rejected the result. “Peru will not accept the violation of the popular will of the Venezuelan people,” he tweeted.
The government of Costa Rica said it categorically rejected what it considered a “fraudulent” result while the president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, said the count had been “clearly flawed”. “You cannot recognize a triumph if you do not trust the form and mechanisms used to achieve it,” Pou said.
The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado – who had thrown her weight behind González’s campaign after being banned from running herself – rejected the result, claiming the opposition had won in every single state.
“We won and everybody knows it,” she said.
“We haven’t just defeated them politically and morally. Today we defeated them with votes,” Machado told journalists, claiming that González had in fact won the contest and should be considered the country’s president-elect.
The result was a bitter blow to Venezuela’s notoriously fractured opposition which had united around the unlikely candidacy of González – a 74-year-old former ambassador and political neophyte – hoping he could help lead the country out of one of the worst peacetime economic collapses in modern history.
In an interview with the BBC on the eve of the hotly awaited election, Machado claimed the oil-rich South American country was approaching a “huge, unique, epic event that will change not only the history of Venezuela but also the whole region”.
“The system is cracking for the first time in 25 years,” Machado claimed of Chavismo, predicting a “huge, historic turnout” that would sweep Maduro from power.
Throughout the day opposition voters turned out in large numbers across the country hoping to vote Maduro out of power.
Critics blame him for leading Venezuela into a crippling economic and social crisis, as well as turning the country into an increasingly repressive state where political opponents are routinely jailed and tortured.
“I voted for Edmundo González because I believe he is the only hope of change that we have here,” said Anabella Donzella, a 23-year-old economics student as she cast her vote in El Marqués, a middle-class area in Caracas.
Donzella and her sister, Sofía, said they had made their choice because they feared being forced to abandon their country, as nearly eight million Venezuelans have done since Maduro was narrowly elected in 2013 and a punishing economic crisis began to accelerate.
“I’m here because it’s my right and I don’t want to end up stuck with the thought that I did nothing,” said Sofía Donzella, 27, admitting she was sceptical that change could really be achieved, amid widespread fears Maduro’s administration would refuse to relinquish power and concerns over whether the vote would be free and fair.
José Martínez, a 23-year-old shoe shop caretaker from the working-class neighbourhood of Petare, said he was voting for Maduro. “I served [in the army] and during that time the president helped me a lot. He helped my family and I cannot let him die,” Martínez said.
Maduro, who was elected after Chávez’s premature death from cancer and returned to office in a widely criticized 2018 election boycotted by the opposition, voiced confidence as he visited his late leader’s tomb in Caracas to lay a wreath before dawn on Sunday.
Wearing a pink guayabera and flanked by the first lady, Cilia Flores, Maduro compared the election to one of the most famous military showdowns in Venezuela’s struggle for independence from Spain. “This is our Battle of Carabobo and we are heading straight for victory,” he declared, dedicating his campaign to Chávez, under whom he served as foreign minister and vice-president. “This victory is yours, comandante!” Maduro added on X.
A few hours later, after voting, Maduro addressed reporters wearing a tracksuit top stamped with the colours of the country critics accuse him of destroying. “I am certain that everything will work out well and that tomorrow will be a beautiful day,” the 61-year-old said.
But there was tension and nervousness on Sunday night as citizens waited for an official announcement about the vote from the pro-Maduro election authority.
The US vice-president Kamala Harris tweeted: “The United States stands with the people of Venezuela who expressed their voice in today’s historic presidential election. The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected.”