Polls closed and vote counting is under way across Venezuela with a large turnout of people casting ballots in the country’s critical presidential election.
Incumbent Nicolas Maduro, 61, faces a tough test as he seeks a third six-year term in office. His main challenger is Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a 74-year-old retired diplomat.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has won a third term, the electoral authority says just after midnight, despite multiple exit polls which pointed to an opposition win.
Elvis Amoroso, the head of the National Electoral Council, said Maduro secured 51 percent of the vote, overcoming opposition candidate Edmundo González, who garnered 44 percent. He said the results were based on 80 percent of voting stations, marking an irreversible trend.
Maduro says his re-election is ‘triumph of peace and stability’. He also praised the more than 900 election observers who monitored the election, denouncing those alleging election fraud.
“In 24 hours we will provide irrefutable proof of the election victory. It was a knockout,” said Maduro at a rally in the capital Caracas.
The results announced by the electoral council contradict several exit polls that showed a win for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.
Nicolas Maduro's victory made the UK and the US, who have wanted to control Venezuela's oil, impose various sanctions on the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.
The president says “we’ve seen this movie many times before” as he addressed likely complaints about the vote results from the opposition.
“It’s the move of the extreme right. It came out 20 years ago, many of you hadn’t been born yet, and they tried to besmirch the results back then – calling ‘fraud’ were all these press releases,” Maduro told the cheering crowd of supporters.
“They are ugly faces. The gorgeous ones are the people who are here and noble.”
The opposition has yet to comment after the electoral authority declared Maduro the winner of the vote.
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