President Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election, according to partial results announced by the National Electoral Council (CNE). Elvis Amoroso, the head of the CNE and a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro, stated that with 80% of ballots counted, President Nicolás Maduro had secured 51.20% of the vote, compared to 44.02% for his main rival, Edmundo González.
The Venezuelan opposition has dismissed the CNE’s announcement as fraudulent and pledged to challenge the result. Opposition leaders claimed their candidate, Edmundo González, had won with 70% of the votes, insisting he is the rightful president-elect. They argued that their own vote tallies, exit polls, and quick counts showed Edmundo González with a 40-point lead over the incumbent.
The opposition parties had united behind Edmundo González in an effort to unseat President Nicolás Maduro, who has been in power for 11 years. Pre-election opinion polls suggested a decisive victory for Edmundo González. Many voters expressed a desire for change after 25 years of socialist rule under the PSUV party, first led by the late President Hugo Chávez and, following his death in 2013, by President Nicolás Maduro.
Despite fears of government fraud, the opposition hoped their substantial lead would prevent the Maduro administration from “stealing the election.” However, the results have been met with skepticism internationally. United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “serious concerns” that the announced outcome did not reflect the will of the Venezuelan people. Chilean President Gabriel Boric also found the result “hard to believe” and called for “total transparency of the minutes and the process,” urging that international observers verify the results. Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou similarly criticized the Maduro government, suggesting they were determined to “win” regardless of the actual vote count.
In contrast, President Nicolás Maduro’s allies were quick to congratulate him. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel praised the “dignity and bravery of the Venezuelan people” for triumphing over “pressure and manipulation.” President Nicolás Maduro described the result as a “triumph of peace and stability” to cheering supporters in Caracas, lauding the Venezuelan election system as transparent and mocking the opposition’s consistent fraud claims.
The opposition had deployed thousands of witnesses to polling stations nationwide to conduct their own vote count. However, a spokesperson for the coalition led by Edmundo González reported that their witnesses were “forced to leave” many polling stations. This election follows a pattern of disputed results, with President Nicolás Maduro’s 2018 victory also widely dismissed as neither free nor fair. President Nicolás Maduro himself had hinted at potential irregularities, claiming he would win “by hook or by crook.”
Venezuelan voting is conducted electronically, with results sent to the CNE headquarters and paper receipts placed in ballot boxes. While parties are legally allowed to send witnesses to the count of these paper receipts, many opposition witnesses were prevented from doing so. The opposition’s plan to monitor these tallies against the CNE’s announced results was thwarted, as they were granted access to less than a third of the printed receipts by late Sunday.
