By: Staff Writer
July 30, 2024
The sum of the Opposition in Venezuela’s fears materialized on July 28, when the presidential elections in Venezuela took place in that incumbent president, Nicholas Maduro, would win a third term in office despite clear discontent with his government and polling weeks ahead of the election suggesting that he would be defeated.
Maduro’s camp said that he has won 51 percent of the vote in last Sunday’s presidential election followed by the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez who is said to have only gotten 44 percent. However, the Gonzalez camp is claiming that the in fact won 73 percent of the vote and that he should be the president of Venezuela now.
The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso – who is a close ally of Mr Maduro – said that with 80 percdent of ballots counted, President Maduro had 51 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for his main rival.
The Venezuelan opposition dismissed the CNE’s announcement as fraudulent and promised to challenge the result.
As a result, tensions are brewing in Venezuela as protesters have taken to the street.
Maduro, who secured a third six-year term as president, denounced an attempt “to impose a coup d’etat” in the country.
“We have witnessed a series of events, more than 100 violent terrorist attacks,” Maduro said on Monday, blaming the opposition for these attacks.
At least six people died during the protests against the presidential election results announced by the electoral commission, according to non-governmental organization Foro Penal in a post on social media, reported by CNN. No one has not yet been able to verify the death toll but has reached out to the Venezuelan police.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said 749 people had been detained in Monday’s protests. Saab rejected the notion that the demonstrations were peaceful, claiming that they resulted in the injuries of 48 military and police officers.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López called the protests an attempted coup d’état and said that the armed forces reaffirmed their “absolute loyalty and unconditional support” to President Nicolás Maduro.
The result of the election will have repercussions well beyond the South American country of 29.4 million inhabitants.
Over the past 10 years, 7.8 million people have fled Venezuela because of the economic and political crisis into which the country was plunged under the Maduro Administration. Quite a significant amount has ended up in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago, who are having a difficult time dealing with the influx.
Polls conducted in the run-up to the election suggest that exodus could now increase, with one poll suggesting a third of the population would emigrate.
With immigration a hot topic in the US election, the government in Washington, as well as Latin American nations to which Venezuelans have emigrated en masse, are affected by what happens in the Andean country.