VLADIMIR Putin’s pal Nicolas Maduro has ‘won’ his third presidential election in Venezuela raising fears of civil war.
Autocrat Maduro, who controls the voting process through cronies, has been accused of having rigged yesterday’s election by the opposition.
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Official results said Maduro, 61, had claimed 51.2 per cent of the vote, while while opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, 74, received 44.2 per cent of the vote.
But the opposition has also claimed victory with their presidential candidate Gonzalez receiving 70 per cent of the vote in their own tabulation.
Marxist Maduro has blasted them, saying it was the “extreme right” opposition who had committed “fraud”.
He told cheering supporters in Caracas late Sunday night : “They are ugly faces. The gorgeous ones are the people who are here and noble.”
But Gonzalez claimed the opposition was kept from scrutinising results and said they “knew what happened”.
He said: “All rules and norms were violated to an extent that we were denied seeing most of the ballots.
“Our change for a peaceful world is still in effect and we’re convinced the majority of Venezuelans aspire to such a change.
“Our struggle continues and we’ll not rest until the will of the Venezuelan people is respected.”
The main opposition leader Maria Corina Machado had been banned from running back in January, despite winning a primary last year.
She claimed overnight that Venezuelan’s “knew” the opposition had won.
“Not only did we defeat him [Maduro], politically, morally and spiritually, we defeated him with votes throughout Venezuela.”
She also called on the army to respect the will of the people and the opposition won’t “accept blackmailing that defence of truth is violence”.
Neighbouring countries have cast doubt on Maduro’s win.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei called Maduro a “sociopath… who enjoys inflicting pain”.
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He posted on X, formerly Twitter, saying that Maduro was a dictator and he should go.
“Venezuelans have chosen to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.
“The data announce a crushing victory for the opposition and the world is waiting for him to recognize the defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence and death.
“Argentina will not recognize another fraud, and expects the Armed Forces to defend democracy and the popular will this time. Freedom Advances in Latin America.”
Chilean President Gabriel Boric says the results are “hard to believe” and they will not “will not recognise any result that is not verifiable”.
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves rejected the results outright and said they considered them “fraud”.
While Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said they had “many doubts” about the results.
Cuba, Honduras, and Bolivia have backed the autocrat and given Maduro their congratulations.
Maduro faced a crisis following his last election win in 2018 – which was widely accepted as being fraudulent.
The leader survived mass protests, a Rambo-style coup run by ex-US special forces, and 57 countries, including the UK and US, recognising Juan Guaido as the legitimate president.
Polls for this election showed Maduro well behind as the country’s economy shrunk 80 percent in a decade, has seen massive hyperinflation and also skyrocketing poverty.
A whopping eight million Venezuelans have fled the country and the dire living conditions under Maduro’s rule.
How Maduro chose his opposition for the election
Nicholas Maduro has been in power in Venezuela for 11 years.
His authoritarian grip on the country and disrespect for human rights has seen him undermine free and fair elections in a number of ways.
One way he does so is by jailing his political opponents or banning them from running.
Most notably at this election was María Corina Machado.
Mochado, a former conservative lawmaker, has captured the attention of broad swathes of the public and draws massive crowds wherever she goes.
She has promised to “bury socialism forever” and create a nation where “the criminals and the corrupt go to prison.”
Machado has promised sweeping reforms and she overwhelmingly won a primary of opposition parties in October last year.
But, in January a court ruled that Machado cannot participate in any elections for 15 years due to supposed financial irregularities while she was a legislator.
Maduro has even recently stripped Machado of her bodyguard and arrested her security adviser, the latest in a number of arrests in her team.
Who Maduro has let run is Edmundo González Urrutia, a little known diplomat who represented the country in Argentina and Algeria.
If Urrutia was to win, Machado may well be the power behind the throne.
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