Protests by governing party and opposition supporters are anticipated in Venezuela on Tuesday following President Nicolas Maduro’s disputed election victory, with the opposition claiming vote tallies show their candidate easily won.
Electoral authorities announced on Monday that Maduro has won a third term with 51% of the vote, prolonging his quarter-century of socialist control. However, the opposition said the 73% of voting tallies to which it had access revealed opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had scored an unbeatable victory, winning more than twice as many votes as Maduro.
“My dear Venezuelans, tomorrow we meet; as a family, organized, demonstrating the determination we have to make every vote count and defend the truth,” opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said in a post on X late on Monday, calling for supporters to march on Tuesday.
Jorge Rodriguez, a governing party lawmaker and Maduro’s campaign manager, urged supporters to join marches to the Miraflores presidential palace to support the administration.
While Gonzalez has warned against violence, Rodriguez accused the opposition of stoking violence.
Speaking on Monday night, Maduro said that his government “knows how to confront this situation and defeat those who are violent,” though he also said he supported peace.
Maduro – a 61-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister – took office on president Hugo Chavez’s death in 2013 and his 2018 reelection is considered fraudulent by the United States and others, who call him a dictator.
Many Venezuelan voters despaired at news of another six-year term for Maduro, who has presided over an economic collapse, the migration of about a third of the population, and a sharp deterioration in diplomatic relations, crowned by sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and others which have crippled an already struggling oil industry.
Governments in Washington and around the world have called for a full tabulation of the votes, while 12 member nations of the Organization of American States are set to meet to discuss the election on Wednesday.
The tallies in possession of the opposition showed a total of 2.75 million votes for Maduro and 6.27 million for his rival, former diplomat Gonzalez, Machado said.
The numbers were sharply different to the 5.15 million votes the electoral authority said Maduro had won, compared to 4.45 million for Gonzalez.
Clashes between protesters and security forces were reported throughout the country on Monday, with tear gas fired to disperse crowds and at least two people killed.
( Source: Reuters)
