Venezuelan elections: Maduro claims victory, opposition claims fraud

Voters around a voting center in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 28, 2024. / Credit: Andrés Henríquez/ACI Prensa

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 29, 2024 / 17:45 pm (CNA).

The Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by the entrenched socialist government of Nicolás Maduro, declared him the winner of the July 28 presidential elections amid much national and international criticism accusing the government of election fraud.

The elections took place in a climate of relative peace. However, local media reported that a man was killed in the Andean state of Táchira during the vote tabulation at the end of the day. According to the local newspaper La Nación, an alleged group of paramilitaries sympathetic to the regime fired mortars at the polling station where the victim was inside. 

In addition, various spokespersons and voters throughout the day reported long waiting times in the line to vote at various polling stations.

The election results

Late in the evening, the president of the CNE, Elvis Amoroso — a well-known supporter of the ruling United Socialist Party — announced an “irreversible” trend in the first report on election results. After counting 80% of the polling stations, he declared Maduro the winner with 51.2% of the vote (about 5 million votes) and placed Edmundo González Urrutia, the candidate of the opposition coalition, in second place with 44.2% of the total votes (almost 4.5 million votes).

Immediately after the announcement, the opposition coalition led by María Corina Machado ignored Amoroso’s announcement and claimed that the real winner of the day was González Urrutia. “Venezuela has a new president-elect and it is Edmundo González,” she said.

“We won! And everyone knows it. I want you to know that this has been something so overwhelming and great that we have won in all parts of the country,” Machado said at a press conference from her campaign headquarters.

“Our struggle continues and we will not rest until the will of the Venezuelan people is respected,” she said after announcing that the true result — according to various projections based on early election results and exit polls — gave the opposition the victory with 70% of the votes compared with 30% for Maduro.

Finally, Machado emphasized she had proof from the election records demonstrating fraud and called on the election judges to not leave the polling stations until they have possession of the records. She announced that in the next few days she will announce the actions to be taken to back her claim.

Maduro spoke from the Palacio de Miraflores, the seat of government, after the CNE press conference: “I ask as president … respect for the constitution, for the public powers and for the sovereign life of Venezuela. Respect for the will of the people,” he shouted.

In addition, he denounced an alleged hack of the Venezuelan election system, although he acknowledged that it provides “confidence, security, transparency.”

The Church’s reaction

The morning of July 28, the president of the CNE called Cardinal Baltazar Porras a “liar”; days before the cardinal had described the electoral process as “atypical” because there was “no equality among the participants.”

Throughout election day, various bishops exercised their right to vote, including Porras. Before the first announcement of election results, Víctor Hugo Basabe, the archbishop of Coro, lamented that the ruling socialist party’s promise of a “bloodbath” if they lost the elections could materialize.

“They want to twist the will of the Venezuelan people who have spoken out en masse and categorically. They have brought their thugs out onto the streets and are fabricating a lie that they will never be able to sustain,” the archbishop said on X.

After Amoroso’s statement, Basabe said: “Definitely, such audacity,” adding: “May God have pity and mercy on Venezuela. Difficult times are coming.”

According to the press office of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference (CEV), the bishops will make a joint statement today in support of the Venezuelan people, who on Sunday after voting took to the streets to support the vote tallying process and pray to God for freedom and justice in the country.

The reaction of the international community

Following the announcement of election results issued by the CNE, international reactions have questioned the legitimacy of the results. At the same time, the regimes of some countries such as Russia, Iran, China, Cuba, and Nicaragua have expressed support for Maduro, recognizing his election victory.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he has “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”

The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, said that the results published by the government “are difficult to believe,” demanded transparency with the records and the process, and stressed that Chile will not recognize “any result that is not verifiable.”

The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, said that “Venezuelans decided to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro” and that “Argentina will not recognize another fraud, and hopes that the Armed Forces will defend democracy and the will of the people this time.”

Luis Lacalle Pou, the president of Uruguay, stated that the vote-counting process “was clearly flawed” and added that his country will not recognize the results if it cannot verify the figures.

The foreign minister of Peru, Javier González-Olaechea, condemned “the accumulation of irregularities with the intention of fraud by the Venezuelan government” and that “Peru will not accept the violation of the will of the Venezuelan people.”

In Europe, the vice president of the Italian government and minister of foreign affairs, Antonio Tajani, expressed today “many doubts” about the election process in Venezuela and asked for “access to the electoral records.”

José Manuel Albares, minister of foreign affairs of the Spanish government, said the will of the Venezuelans “must be respected with the presentation of the records of all the polling stations to guarantee the results to be fully verifiable.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.