Key Points
- Venezuela’s electoral authority, loyal to the government, declared Maduro had won with 51.2 per cent of votes.
- Rival Edmundo González Urrutia, who had been leading in polls, had 44.2 per cent of votes.
- US secretary of state Antony Blinken said his country had “serious concerns” about the result announced.
He said the results were based on 80 per cent of voting stations, marking an irreversible trend.
Maduro counts on a loyal electoral apparatus, military leadership and state institutions in a system of well-established political patronage.
A rising opposition
Machado was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years. The former politician swept the opposition’s October primary with more than 90 per cent of the vote.
Edmundo González Urrutia was chosen as the opposition candidate after María Corina Machado was blocked from joining the presidential race. Source: AP / Matias Delacroix
After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a university professor as her substitute, but the CNE also barred her from registering, resulting in González, a political newcomer, being chosen.
“The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” González said in his first remarks since the result was announced.
Maduro’s popularity has plummeted
In the once wealthy petro-state, GDP dropped by 80 per cent in a decade, pushing more than seven million of its 30 million citizens to emigrate.
Having taken office in 2013, Maduro is accused of locking up critics and harassing the opposition in a climate of rising authoritarianism. Source: AP / Ariana Cubillos
Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation led to social unrest and then mass emigration.
Economic sanctions from the United States seeking to force Maduro from power after his 2018 re-election — which the US and dozens of other countries condemned as illegitimate — only deepened the crisis.
US concerned about transparency of results
“We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” he said in Tokyo on Monday, shortly after the CNE announcement.
“The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly.”