Maduro wins controversial Venezuela poll
CARACAS (AFP) — President Nicolas Maduro was unsurprisingly declared winner of Venezuela’s election on Sunday in a poll rejected as invalid by his rivals, who 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 which hands Maduro a second six-year term.
“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 Venezuela,” Falcon said.
Maduro hailed his victory 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.
The official result gave Maduro 67.7 percent of the vote, with Falcon a distant second with 21.2 percent. In the last opinion polls before the vote, the pair were running neck-and-neck.
Falcon said fresh elections could be held in November or December, when they are traditionally contested.
Maduro’s government had them brought forward by several months, which sparked international condemnation and prompted the boycott by the main opposition.
Maduro, the political heir to the late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, has presided over an implosion of once wealthy oil producer Venezuela’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.
“Your vote decides: ballots or bullets, motherland or colony, peace or violence, independence or subordination,” said the 55-year-old former bus driver and union leader.
The comments reflected previous statements by the socialist leader that Venezuela is the victim of an “economic war” waged by the conservative opposition and outside powers such as the US aimed at toppling him.