Sham election? Maduro claims third six-year term

FPI / July 30, 2024

Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential election, securing a third six-year term in a result that the opposition and many outside observers said was a sham.

Exit polls and preliminary poll tallies suggested an overwhelming victory for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez — the only legitimate opposition candidate allowed to be on the ballot — against the ruling dictator. The Venezuelan opposition immediately contested the “official” results, claiming that Gonzalez defeated Maduro by a roughly 40-percent vote difference.

Just after midnight Monday, six hours after polling stations were supposed to close, the regime-controlled National Electoral Council declared that Maduro would extend his 11-year rule into the next decade. The council said that Maduro had won 51.2% of the vote, compared to 44.2% of the vote for Gonzalez.

In the weeks leading up to Sunday's vote, Maduro had trailed Gonzalez by more than 25 percentage points in the polls.

Speaking from Japan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration had “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.” He said “the international community is watching this closely and will respond accordingly.”

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The result is "a blow to the Biden administration, which had offered concessions in recent months in exchange for commitments to hold free elections, but instead saw Maduro tighten his grip. Maduro’s victory will be welcomed in the capitals of the U.S.’s most vehement adversaries, from Havana to Moscow to Tehran, whose autocratic leaders have built close commercial and military ties with Venezuela," the Wall Street Journal reported.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in a post on X: "The poor people of Venezuela’s election has been stolen by Dictator Nicolas Maduro. Shutting the polls and stealing ballot boxes and many more tactics were used for Maduro to cling to power. You can vote your way into Socialism or Communism but you have to fight your way out."

The U.S.-based Carter Center called on Venezuelan authorities to immediately publish the tallies of 30,000 individual voting machines from the election. The center in Atlanta sent a small group to Venezuela for the election. It said the missing polling station data was “critical to our assessment and important for all Venezuelans.”

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the margin of Gonzalez's victory was “overwhelming,” based on tallies the campaign received from representatives stationed at about 40% of ballot boxes.

Speaking early Monday, Machado, who backed Gonzalez after she had been banned from running against Maduro, said he had taken about 70% of the votes. Machado called Maduro’s claim of victory fraudulent and urged the armed forces to respect the election’s real results.

“We are going to defend the truth,” said Machado. “Everyone knows what happened. They know what happened and what they are trying to do.”

After the election council declared him teh winner, Maduro said: “What a beautiful day we’ve lived. Thanks for giving me this victory that the people so deserve. This is the triumph of the ideals of equality.”

Gonzalez said that all norms had been violated by the regime.

“Our message of reconciliation and change in peace remains valid, and we’re convinced that the great majority of Venezuelans want it, too,” he said. “Our fight continues, and we won’t rest until the will of the Venezuelan people is respected.”

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