RIO DE JANEIRO: Venezuela's Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Monday that the country's authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, has won a third term in office, but the opposition rejected those results saying it had won.
Maduro won about 51 per cent of the vote, beating opposition candidate Edmundo González, who secured about 44 per cent, the CNE said. But opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was banned from holding public office for 15 years due to alleged irregularities from her time as a member of parliament, claimed the opposition had secured 70 per cent of the vote.
"We won and the whole world knows that," she told journalists. She referred to post-election polls and four independent projections as well as the actual counting results. "This is the largest margin of victory in history," she said.
The 56-year-old industrial engineer was seen as the driving force behind González's candidacy. The 74-year-old diplomat was previously largely unknown in the country.
"Venezuelans and the whole world know what happened on election day today," he said.
Ahead of the vote, few observers inside or outside Venezuela expected a free and fair election.
In the run-up to election day, numerous members of the opposition were detained and candidates critical of the government were not allowed to run.
The European Union was not represented with observers at the vote as Venezuela's electoral authority had revoked an invitation due to existing personal sanctions against CNE representatives.
According to the Panamanian authorities, four Latin American ex-presidents were prevented from travelling to observe the election on Friday.
Although the United Nations has sent some election experts, their roles are limited as the body does not make public statements to assess the electoral process.
US has 'serious concerns' about results
Hours after the CNE announcement proclaiming Maduro the winner, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit to Japan, questioned the results.
"We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people," Blinken said, according to US media reports from Monday.
He called on the electoral commission to publish the full results and "to immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers."
He added: "The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly." He did not elaborate on what those actions might be.
Some Latin American leaders have doubts.
"The Maduro regime must realise that the results it publishes are hard to believe," Chilean President Gabriel Boric wrote on the X platform. "Chile will not recognise any result that is not verifiable."
His Guatemalan counterpart Bernardo Arévalo wrote: "We have received the results announced by the CNE with great doubt."
Both those in the left-wing, anti-Western camp congratulated Maduro, including the heads of state of Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Honduras. China did too.
"China and Venezuela are good friends and partners who support each other," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Beijing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also congratulated Maduro. In a letter published by the Kremlin, Putin conveyed his "warmest congratulations."
"Russian-Venezuelan relations have the character of a strategic partnership. I am convinced that your actions at the head of state will continue to enable progressive development in all directions," Putin continued. — DPA
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