World

Maduro wins third term, Venezuela electoral authority says, despite exit polls

July 29, 2024 3:41 pm

[Source: Reuters]

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has won a third term with 51% of the vote, the country’s electoral authority said just after midnight on Monday, with 80% of ballot boxes counted.

The result announced by the authority came despite multiple exit polls which pointed to an opposition win.

The authority said opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won 44% of the vote, though the opposition had earlier said it had “reasons to celebrate” and asked supporters to continue monitoring vote counts.

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“The results cannot be hidden. The country has peacefully chosen a change,” Gonzalez said in a post on X at around 11 p.m. local time, before the results were announced.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado reiterated a call for the country’s military to uphold the results of the vote.

“A message for the military. The people of Venezuela have spoken: they don’t want Maduro,” she said earlier on X. “It is time to put yourselves on the right side of history. You have a chance and it’s now.”

Venezuela’s military has always supported Maduro, a 61-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister, and there have been no public signs that leaders of the armed forces are breaking from the government.