Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has won re-election to another six-year term on Sunday, in a vote marred by an opposition boycott and claims of vote-rigging. This electoral process has been heavily criticized and decried by the international community as a farce fostering of dictatorship.
“This was a historic day! The day of a heroic victory! The day of a beautiful victory – of a truly popular victory,” Maduro shouted.
“So much they have underestimated the revolutionary people! So much they have underestimated me,” Mr. Maduro said, addressing a cheering outdoor crowd in Caracas. “And here we are again, victorious!”
Shortly before the results were announced, Falcón accused the administration of vote buying, intimidation and other dirty tricks, and said he considered the election “illegitimate.”
“We do not recognise this electoral process as valid… we have to have new elections in Venezuela,” he said
Henri Falcon, opposition candidate, complained of vote influencing via the scanning of state-issued “motherland cards” benefits cards at red tents after voting on Sunday.
Government officials said the polls were “free and fair” but most of the opposition joined boycott against the poll.
Amid food shortages stemming from a severe economic crisis, just 46% of the electorate turned out to vote. The elections were initially scheduled for December, then changed to April 22, then delayed again to May 2018.
In the capital and around the country, the turnout was extremely low, with more than half of voters not casting ballots, reflecting both a call from many opposition leaders for a boycott of the vote and the disillusionment of longtime government supporters.
A third presidential candidate, evangelical pastor Javier Bertucci, followed Falcon in slamming irregularities during Sunday’s vote and calling for a new election.
The administration of the US President Donald Trump said it would not recognise the result. Posting on Twitter ahead of the vote, the US mission to the United Nations called the process an “insult to democracy”.
>Juthy Saha
