Maduro declared winner in Venezuela presidential election
Nicolas Maduro has been declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election by the government-controlled electoral authority.
Venezuelan Socialist PSUV leader Nicolas Maduro has won a third consecutive term in the presidential election. However, Maduro's main rival, Edmund Gonzalez challenged the result, alleging widespread fraud in the vote count. There has been a lot of debate in the country.
Elvis Amroso, head of the country's National Electoral Council (CNE) and a close ally of Maduro, said that after 80 percent of the votes were counted, Maduro had won 51.2 percent.
Result with 80% of vote counted goes against opinion polls that suggested Maduro was facing possible defeat against little-known ex-diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia
After a six-hour delay in releasing the results of Sunday’s election sparked an outpouring of concern from South American governments, the national electoral council claimed Maduro had won with 51.21% of votes compared with 44.2% for his rival, the former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
'I am Nicolas Maduro Moros – the re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ... and I will defend our democracy, our law and our people,' the 61-year-old authoritarian proclaimed as he addressed supporters in the capital, Caracas.
The victory was celebrated by Maduro's allies including the Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, who hailed a 'historic victory' and called it a triumph of 'the dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people'. 'The people spoke and the revolution won,' he tweeted.
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