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Venezuela election: Maduro declared winner in disputed vote

The Venezuelan opposition dismissed the CNE’s announcement as fraudulent and promised to challenge the result.

Over the past 10 years, 7.8 million people have fled Venezuela because of the economic and political crisis into which the country was plunged under the Maduro Administration.

Polls conducted in the run-up to the election suggest that exodus could now increase, with one poll suggesting a third of the population would emigrate.

  • 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.

  • The UK Foreign Office also expressed concern over the results

  • The Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, also said he found the result “hard to believe”.

  • Uruguay’s president said of the Maduro government: “They were going to ‘win’ regardless of the actual results.”

In a congratulatory message, President Vladimir Putin told Mr Maduro: “Remember, you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil.”

MagicShel ,

That is wildly incongruent with the exit polling that showed Maduro losing by over a 2:1 margin.

memfree OP ,

Yeah, not only did they prevent the actual opposition leader from running, they’ve really made the vote count look suspicious. From APnews :

The official results came as a shock to opposition members who had celebrated, online and outside a few voting centers, what they believed was a landslide victory for González.

“I’m so happy,” said Merling Fernández, a 31-year-old bank employee, as a representative for the opposition campaign walked out of one voting center in a working class neighborhood of Caracas to announce results showing González more than doubled Maduro’s vote count. Dozens standing nearby erupted in an impromptu rendition of the national anthem.

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.

MagicShel , (edited )

I don’t really know anything about the situation there. I don’t know if you know the answers but I have questions.

Realistically, is there any hope for democracy to prevail? What is the likelihood the military would step in? Not that military coups are a good thing, either. It sounds like people are more keen to escape than to rise up.

Edit: assuming the exit polls aren’t the thing being manipulated.

The_Che_Banana ,

No chance since Chavez took power. My wife was part of Amnesty International cou ti g bodies during his first couple attemp, before he was released from jail and won his first election.

And thats why you don’t vote for populist dictator wannabes, because this is what you get.

Andrzej ,

Not saying that nothing fishy has gone down, but that ‘exit poll’ was conducted by the opposition, and that margin seems ridiculous considering the crowds that Maduro has been drawing

MagicShel ,

Right. Great point. I had that in the back of my head but forgot to mention it.

memfree OP ,

That particular exit poll APnews was reporting on was just for one polling place, so it doesn’t mean much, but yes, it was an opposition campaigner.

That said, we shouldn’t have to speculate. All the votes should be available for review – at least for voting centers where the results are in dispute.

On the other hand, we’ve been seeing that ‘big money’ wants the opposition to win because Maria Machado (the opposition leader who was kept off the ballot) “—derided by the Chavista leadership for her pro-market views and her upper-class background” —has promised pro-business changes.

Andrzej ,

For ‘pro-business’ read ‘swingeing privatisation’ but yeah the whole thing is a mess, and I’m not sure it’s possible to have ‘free and fair’ (whatever that means) elections under such conditions.

Wrt reasons to doubt the result, electronic vote counting/voting machines are reason enough imho — but that throws a load of other democracies into question 🤷

memfree OP ,

IMO, all voting should be on paper so that a hand recount can be done if the machines are questioned.

Andrzej ,

Yes I agree 100%. There’s no other way to do it.

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