Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has won a third term with 51 percent of the vote, the country’s electoral authority said just after midnight Monday, with 80 percent of the ballots counted.
The results declared by the authority came despite several exit polls that pointed to a victory for the opposition.
The authority said opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez received 44 percent of the vote, although the opposition had earlier said it had “reasons to celebrate” and asked supporters to continue monitoring the vote count.
“The results cannot be hidden. The country has chosen change in a peaceful way,” Gonzalez said in a post on X at around 11 p.m. local time, before the results were announced.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado reiterated a call for the country’s military to uphold the vote results.
“Message to the military. The Venezuelan people have spoken: they don’t want Maduro,” he said earlier on X.
“It’s time to put yourself on the right side of history. You have your chance and it’s now.”
Venezuela’s military has always supported Maduro, a 61-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister, and there have been no public signs that the armed forces’ leaders are breaking away from the government.