Caracas
\nPresident Nicolas Maduro and his opposition rival Edmundo Gonzalez on Monday both claimed victory in Venezuela\u2019s presidential election as Washington and other foreign governments cast doubt on official results that kept the incumbent in power.
\nThe national electoral authority said just after midnight that Maduro had won a third term with 51% of the vote\u2013a result that would extend a quarter-century of socialist rule.
\nBut independent exit polls pointed to a big opposition win following enthusiastic shows of support for Gonzalez and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on the campaign trail.
\nGonzalez won 70%, said Machado, who had been barred from holding public office in a decision she says is unfair.
\nGonzalez told supporters that rules had been violated on polling day.
\n\u201cOur message of reconciliation and peaceful change still stands\u2026our struggle continues and we won\u2019t rest until the will of the people of Venezuela is respected,\u201d he said.
\nIt was not immediately clear exactly what the opposition\u2019s next move might be. Gonzalez also said he was not calling for supporters to take to the streets or commit any acts of violence.
\nBut isolated incidents took place around the country before the announcement of results, including the death of one man in Tachira state and scuffles at polling sites in Caracas and other places. Police dispersed a protest in Catia, traditionally a ruling party bastion in western Caracas.
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had serious concerns that the results announced by the electoral authority did not reflect the votes of the people. The authority is meant to be an independent body but the opposition says it acts as an arm of Maduro\u2019s government.
\nCaracas and Washington have long had an adversarial relationship dating back to the era of left-wing populist Hugo Chavez. Maduro\u2013a 61-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister\u2013first took office on Chavez\u2019s death in 2013 and his 2018 reelection is considered fraudulent by the United States and others, who call him a dictator.
\nMaduro has presided over an economic collapse, the migration of about a third of the population, and a sharp deterioration in diplomatic relations, crowned by sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and others which have crippled an already struggling oil industry.
\nArgentine President Javier Milei called the official result a fraud, while Costa Rica and Peru rejected it and Chile said it would not accept any result that was not verifiable.
\nSpanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said details from all polling stations should be presented to guarantee fully verifiable results. \u201cWe ask that the calm and civility with which the election day took place be maintained,\u201d he said.
\nRussia, Cuba, Honduras and Bolivia cheered Maduro\u2019s victory.
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Maduro and hailed the two countries\u2019 strategic partnership, saying they would continue their joint work on bilateral and international issues.
\n\u201cRemember that you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil,\u201d Putin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caracas President Nicolas Maduro and his opposition rival Edmundo Gonzalez on Monday both claimed victory in Venezuela\u2019s presidential election as Washington and other foreign governments cast doubt on official results that kept the incumbent in power. The national electoral authority said just after midnight that Maduro had won a third term with 51% of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":68059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68062,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68047\/revisions\/68062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}