Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro wins third term – as opponent says ‘entire world knows what happened’

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has won a third term, the country’s electoral authority has said – despite several exit polls which had pointed to a decisive opposition win.

The head of the National Electoral Council, Elvis Amoroso, said Mr Maduro had secured 51% of the vote, beating his opponent Edmundo Gonzalez, who won 44%.

Announcing the result shortly after midnight, he said around 80% of ballot boxes have been counted, adding that results had been delayed because of “aggression” against the electoral data transmission system.

Mr Maduro said his re-election was a triumph of peace and stability, and reiterated his campaign assertion that Venezuela‘s electoral system is transparent.

However, Mr Gonzalez also claimed victory, saying “Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened”.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said Mr Gonzalez’s margin of victory was “overwhelming”, based on results from the voting tallies from about 40% of nationwide ballot boxes.

“The results cannot be hidden. The country has peacefully chosen a change,” Mr Gonzalez tweeted before the results were announced.

Opposition hopes had been raised after several purported exit polls – not allowed under Venezuelan law – showed a promising margin of victory for Mr Gonzalez.

However, the electoral authority, controlled by those loyal to Mr Maduro, did not immediately release the official tallies from each of the 30,000 polling stations nationwide, limiting the opposition’s ability to challenge the results.

The foreign office said on X the UK was “concerned by allegations of serious irregularities in the counting and declared results of Sunday’s presidential election in Venezuela”.

It demanded the “swift and transparent publication of full, detailed results to ensure that the outcome reflects the votes of the Venezuelan people.”

US secretary of state Antony Blinken called on Venezuela’s electoral authorities to publish a detailed tabulation of the votes to ensure transparency and accountability.

Speaking in Tokyo shortly after the result was made public, Mr Blinken said the US had “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.

“It’s critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that the electoral authorities immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that the electoral authorities publish the tabulation of votes.

“The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly.”

There was a mixed reaction from across the region, with Chile’s President Gabriel Boric saying “Maduro’s regime must understand that the results are hard to believe”, adding that Santiago “will not recognise any result that is not verifiable”.

Bernardo Arevalo, the president of Guatemala, said he had “many doubts” about the results, while Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou called it an “open secret” that Mr Maduro “was going to ‘win’ regardless of the actual results”.

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However, the presidents of Cuba, Honduras and Bolivia all welcomed the news of a third consecutive six-year term for Mr Maduro.

Spain’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares and the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borell echoed the calls for Caracas to release detailed voting data.

Mr Gonzalez, a retired diplomat, was relatively unknown to voters before April, when he became a last-minute stand-in for Ms Machado, after she was blocked from standing by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice.