Maduro declared victor of Venezuela’s disputed presidential election
Maduro declared victor of Venezuela’s disputed presidential election
Election authority says Maduro, who faced a stiff test from a unified opposition, secured 51 percent of the vote.
Congratulations president Maduro
Maybe. APnews says:
Authorities delayed releasing the results from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, promising only to do so in the “coming hours,” hampering attempts to verify the results.
After finally claiming to have won, Maduro accused unidentified foreign enemies of trying to hack the voting system.
Per bbc:
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was among those expressing his scepticism after the result was announced by the National Electoral Council, a body which is dominated by government loyalists.
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The UK Foreign Office also expressed concern over the results
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The Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, also said he found the result "hard to believe".
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Uruguay's president said of the Maduro government: "They were going to 'win' regardless of the actual results."
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In a congratulatory message, President Vladimir Putin told Mr Maduro: "Remember, you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil."
That said, I didn't really want Maria Machado “—derided by the Chavista leadership for her pro-market views and her upper-class background“ — to lead a puppet government after getting kicked off the ballot.
Western propagandists once again disputing an election in Venezuela?!
I'm anticipating strife and reporting from additional sources. This could get ugly and people should be aware of it.
Note that al-jazeera itself reported this in the article you linked:
“Everything we have seen so far indicates the results of the government are just produced,” Phil Gunson, International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Venezuela, told Al Jazeera. He claimed the tallies announced by the government-controlled electoral authority did not correspond to the votes cast.
“The result that the opposition claims is the correct one … corresponds very closely to what opinion polls have been saying for the last several months,” Gunson said. “All the partial results we have seen so far indicate the opposition got something like three-fifths of the vote.”
The US and UK have been trying to coup the Venezuelan government for years; their opinions have zero credibility here. But Gabriel Boric seems to be a reasonably sensible and neutral leader, so I think his reading should be given some consideration.
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