Maduro wins, Venezuela rivals cry foul
■ After disputed vote, sanctions likely to be intensified
Caracas, May 21: Venezuela was facing the threat of fresh international sanctions and intensified domestic unrest Monday following President Nicolas Maduro’s re- election in a vote rejected by the opposition as a farce.
In a further sign of the escalating pressure on Mr Maduro, the 14 countries of the Lima Group, including Argentina, Brazil and Canada, said Monday they were recalling their ambassadors from Venezuela to protest what they said was an illegitimate presidential election.
Venezuela was already isolated and deep in the worst economic crisis of its history, with its people enduring food and medicine shortages, that have sparked violent unrest and a mass exodus by hundreds of thousands of people.
Election officials said Mr Maduro won 68 per cent of the votes cast in Sunday’s presidential poll, far ahead of the 21 per cent won by his nearest rival, ex- army officer Henri Falcon.
In an address to cheering supporters outside Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Maduro hailed his victory for another six- year term as a “historic record”.
“We won again! We triumphed again! We are the force of history turned into a permanent popular victory!” Maduro told those gathered to celebrate his “knockout” victory.
Caracas, May 21: 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 and condemned by much of the international community, but one that hands Maduro a second term until 2025.
“We do not recognize this electoral process as valid, as true,” his main rival Henri Falcon told a news conference, even before the result was announced.
“For us, there were no elections. We have to have new elections in Vene zuela.” 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. In the last opinion polls before the vote, the pair were running neckandneck. Third- placed Javier Bertucci, an evangelist preacher who polled around 11 percent, joined in the call for new elections.
Maduro, the political heir to the late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, has presided over an implosion of the once wealthy oil producer's economy since taking office in 2013.
Hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, rising crime and broken water, power and transportation networks have sparked violent unrest, and left Maduro with a 75 percent disapproval rating.
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have fled the South American country in a mass exodus in recent years.
Wearing a bright red shirt that identifies him as a “Chavista,” the president arrived early at a Caracas polling station along with his wife, former prosecutor Cilia Flores.
In a sign of his changing image, president's campaign slogan this year was “Everyone with Maduro, loyalty and the future.”
Five years ago I was a novice,” he said recently. “Now I am a standup Maduro, who has confronted the oligarchy.”