Opposition candidate Edmundo González says the struggle will continue
After electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner, opposition candidate Edmundo González said that all rules were violated.
The opposition demanded the electoral authorities present all the voting tallies issued by the voting machines to verify the results.
González, a former diplomat who had never run for public office, questioned whether the National Electoral Council (CNE) has in its hands 80% of the tally sheets, as they claimed close to midnight on Sunday. The CNE is seen by the opposition as favoring the ruling party.
“Our struggle continues and we will not rest until the will of the Venezuelan people is respected,” said González, accompanied by opposition leader and former legislator María Corina Machado, the driving force of his campaign.
Right after the electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner, some opposition supporters in Caracas reacted with disbelief.
“It’s not possible that this is happening to us,” Ayarí Padrón said as she started crying after listening to the announcement on a cellphone. “This is a humiliation, really.”
In some areas of the capital people started banging pots as a brief protest.
In his speech, Maduro did not immediately offer any policy promises the likes of which voters repeatedly said the country needs: higher wages, jobs and investments in education and health care.
But he did spend time mocking the facial features of Argentina’s President Javier Milei and calling him a “sociopath… who enjoys inflicting pain” on his country’s people.
Milei had earlier called Maduro a “dictator.”
“The Venezuelans chose to end the dictatorship of communist Nicolás Maduro,” Milei wrote on X. “The data indicate a crushing victory by the opposition and the world awaits that (Maduro) recognizes defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence and death.”
Maduro was declared the winner in Venezuela’s presidential election Sunday, even as his opponents were preparing to dispute the results, setting up a high-stakes showdown that will determine whether the South American nation transitions away from one party rule.
