Maduro wins re-election in Venezuela

Vote marred by irregularities amid calls for a new ballot

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan officials declared socialist leader Nicolas Maduro the easy winner of Sunday’s presidential election, while his leading challenger questioned the legitimacy of a vote marred by irregularities and called for a new ballot to prevent a brewing social crisis from exploding.

The National Election Council announced that with almost 93 percent of polling stations reporting, Maduro won nearly 68 percent of the votes, beating nearest challenger Henri Falcon by almost 40 points.

The disputed victory is likely to heighten international pressure on Maduro. Voter turnout was the lowest in a presidential race since the start of Venezuela’s leftist revolution two decades ago. On Sunday, a senior State Department official warned that the U.S. might press ahead on threats of imposing crippling oil sanctions.

The election “without any doubt lacks legitimacy and we categorically refuse to recognize this process,” Falcon said.

Falcon was joined in his call for a new election by third-place finisher Javier Bertucci, who got around 11 percent of the vote. Bertucci, a TV evangelist, stopped short of challenging the results, saying that a mistaken opposition boycott boosted Maduro.

But he said that in the event of a new vote, Maduro should refuse to run. If Maduro presses forward, he said, Venezuela would explode from a social crisis marked by widespread food shortages and hyperinflation before his new term starts next January.