President Nicolas Maduro was unsurprisingly declared winner of Venezuela’s election Sunday in a poll rejected as “invalid” by his rivals, who immediately called for fresh elections to be held later this year.
Reeling under a devastating economic crisis, only 46 percent of voters turned out to cast ballots in an election boycotted by the opposition, but one that hands Maduro a second term until 2025.
Maduro hailed his victory for another six-year term as a “historic record” in a speech to thousands of cheering supporters outside the official Miraflores Palace in Caracas.
“Never before has a presidential candidate taken 68 percent of the popular vote,” he said, to applause.
“We won again! We triumphed again! We are the force of history turned into a permanent popular victory,” said Maduro.
The official result gave Maduro 67.7 percent of the vote, with Falcon a distant second at 21.2 percent.
For his part, Maduro’s main rival, Henri Falcon told a news conference that he doesn’t recognize this electoral process as valid or true, even before the result was announced.
“For us, there were no elections. We have to have new elections in Venezuela.”
Third-placed Javier Bertucci, an evangelist preacher who polled around 11 percent, joined in the call for new elections.
Source: AFP
