CARACAS/MARACAIBO/MARACAY: Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Monday the country’s opposition has 73.2% of the voting tallies from Sunday’s election, allowing it to prove election results it says give it a victory.
The national electoral authority has proclaimed incumbent President Nicolas Maduro the winner of the vote, giving him a third term in office and extending 25 years of socialist party rule.
But independent pollsters called that result implausible, and opposition leaders and foreign observers urged the electoral authority to release vote tallies.
The tallies in possession of the opposition showed a total of 2.75 million votes for Maduro and 6.27 million for his rival, former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez, Machado said.
The numbers were sharply different to the 5.15 million votes the electoral authority said Maduro had won, compared to 4.45 million for Gonzalez.
Witnesses assigned to observe vote counts have a right to a copy of each voting machine’s tally, but the opposition said overnight that some witnesses were blocked from following counts and that at other sites the tallies were not printed.
The opposition has long warned about whether the vote would be fair, saying decisions by officials and the arrests of opposition staff were meant to create obstacles.
The electoral authority said just after midnight Maduro had won 51% of the vote.
Later it proclaimed Maduro president for 2025 to 2031, adding he had won “the majority of valid votes.”
Governments in Washington and elsewhere cast doubt on the results and called for a full tabulation of votes. Independent exit polls pointed to 65% support for Gonzalez and between 14% and 31% backing for Maduro.
Nicolas Maduro wins third term, electoral authority says, contradicting exit polls
At least two people were killed in connection with the vote count or protests – one overnight in the border state of Tachira and another in Maracay on Monday.
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