Venezuela: Maduro wins his third presidential term
President Nicolás Maduro has won Venezuela's presidential election, according to partial results announced by the electoral council, BBC reports.
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.
Maduro, who appeared at the presidential palace to cheering supporters, said his re-election was a triumph of peace and stability and reiterated his campaign claim that Venezuela's electoral system is transparent.
A poll by Edison Research, known for its US election polls, predicted at the polls that Gonzalez would get 65 percent of the vote, while Maduro would get 31 percent, Reuters reports.
The local firm Meganalisis predicted a vote of 65% for Gonzalez and just under 14% for Maduro.
The votes from approximately 80% of the ballot boxes were counted, said the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, adding that the results were delayed due to an "aggression" against the electoral data transmission system.
The CNE asked the attorney general to investigate "terrorist actions," Amoroso said, adding that turnout was 59 percent.
The opposition previously said that voters had opted for a change after 25 years of socialist party rule. "The results cannot be hidden. The country peacefully chose a change," Gonzalez said in a post on X around 11:00 p.m. local time, before the results were announced.
