Venezuelan officials assert Maduro’s reelection — MercoPress

Venezuelan authorities claim Maduro was reelected

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) announced in the wee hours of Monday that President Nicolás Maduro Moros had been ratified for another six years in office. However, the main opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia posted on X that “the results are undeniable” because “the country chose a peaceful change.”

CNE Chairman Elvis Amoroso said Maduro collected 51.2% after 80% of the vote was counted, representing a “strong and irreversible trend.” González Urrutia received 44.2% of the vote, Amoroso also said. The opposition’s reaction was to be made public.

After a relatively calm voting day with minor incidents during which nonetheless one person was reported to have been killed, supporters at both the González Urrutia’s Unitarian Platform (PUD) and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) were celebrating.

For the PSUV, Jully 28 was also the 70th birthday of the late revolutionary leader Hugo Chávez Frías, whom Maduro succeeded after his death in 2013, thus extending the Bolivarian regime to today’s 25th straight year.

Way before any figures were released, Argentine Foreign Ministry Diana Mondino posted on social media that Maduro should “acknowledge defeat”. “The difference in votes against the Chavista dictatorship is overwhelming,” she went on. “There is no fraud or violence that hides reality,” Argentina’s top diplomat added.