Venezuelans Protest, Claiming Election Has Been Rigged
President Nicolás Maduro appears to have retained his leadership after Sunday’s presidential election in Venezuela, but his victory claim has led thousands of citizens to protest, claiming that the result has been rigged.
Ahead of the vote, opinion polls suggested that the challenger – Edmundo González – would comfortably win the election and his representatives claim that he did with 73.2% of the votes. However, Maduro claimed victory, leading to widespread accusations of electoral fraud.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas in protest on Monday evening, some walking for miles to descend on the presidential palace, before security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
Several Latin American countries, as well as the UN, have asked the Venezuelan authorities to release records of the votes cast from individual polling stations. Argentina has refused to recognise President Maduro’s victory after Venezuela recalled diplomats from Buenos Aires, along with Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
US senior administration officials have also expressed concerns, saying that the result “does not track with data that we’ve received through quick count mechanisms and other sources, which suggests that the result that was announced may be at odds with how people voted”.
President Maduro has been in power for the past 11 years but faces widespread discontent over the country’s economic crisis.
