Maduro declared election winner amid protests

Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro was on Monday July 29, 2024, declared by the National Electoral Council to have secured 51 per cent of the votes in a country’s highly anticipated election.

He spoke in a post-electional televised address from Caracas while groups of protestors took to the streets objecting to the re-election of Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela: PSUV).

Supporters of the main opposition Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) led by Edmundo González Urrutia are claiming victory. Sunday’s presidential election results indicate that the PUD secured a little over 44 per cent of the votes, however, Gonzales told reporters Monday that his party had obtained more than 70 per cent of tally sheets from the election and they show that Gonzales had more than double Maduro’s votes.

At the conference, Maduro greeted over 900 observers from more than 100 countries and urged them to make what they saw during the elections visible, while praising the foreigners for the job that was done in showing Venezuela to be a democratic country.

He accused locals, aided by foreign powers, of trying to impose a coup d’etat in Venezuela but stressed that peace would prevail.

“We went through this already and we saw this movie already, the script is similar and the movie is the same… Guaidó 2.0…”. Maduro said as well that the protagonists are the same, “and they are hateful” and are trying to impose aggressive tactics in Venezuela.

The Guaidó referred to by Maduro is Juan Gerardo Antonio Guaidó, a Venezuelan, who in 2019 declared himself to be president of Venezuela and swore himself into office, starting a presidential crisis.

Maduro said he and his party went to the electorate and gained the nod in free and fair elections and no one is going to take that away as his party raises the awareness of the people.

The president also said that in 2023, five attempts were made on his life, and in 2024 as well, and persons were caught, confessed, and are in prison.

“The mastermind is in jail as the idea was to create a chaos and a bloodbath…this plan is well known. It is an old script, a movie based on lies, fraud, corruption…”.

Maduro said a battle against fascism was fought on Sunday, July 28, and his party won, and persons must respect the constitution as the government will maintain peace.

“A lot of vile persons from the extreme right want to run Venezuela…fascism does not understand democracy or dialogue because it is a criminal actor and is looking to promote and make us a colony but we continuing to fight,” the president stressed. Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves has congratulated Maduro on winning his third six year term in office.

Meanwhile, the United States of America (USA) and other countries have voiced concerns about the results claiming irregularities and accusing the National Electoral Council (CNE) of lacking impartiality.