CARACAS: President Nicolás Maduro has won Venezuela’s presidential election, according to partial results announced by the electoral council.
The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso – who is a close ally of Mr Maduro – said that with 80% of ballots counted, President Maduro had 51% of the vote, compared to 44% for his main rival.
The Venezuelan opposition dismissed the CNE’s announcement as fraudulent and promised to challenge the result.
It said its candidate, Edmundo González, had won with 70% of the votes and insisted he was the rightful president-elect.
The opposition said vote tallies it had received, as well as exit polls and quick counts, showed Mr González had a lead of 40 percentage points over the incumbent.
Opposition parties had united behind Mr González in an attempt to unseat President Maduro after 11 years in power.
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Opinion polls conducted ahead of the election had suggested Mr González would roundly defeat the president.
The result of the election will have repercussions well beyond the South American country of 29.4 million inhabitants.
Over the past 10 years, 7.8 million people have fled Venezuela because of the economic and political crisis into which the country was plunged under the Maduro Administration.
