After Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in his country’s presidential election on Sunday, many world leaders expressed skepticism of the claim’s veracity. Venezuela’s opposition accused Maduro of dishonesty and not being the actual victor of the elections. On Monday, the opposition party said it had proof that Maduro actually lost the election.
Maduro’s opponent, Democratic Unitary Platform candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, and Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader, claimed to have procured 70% of the tally sheets from Venezuela’s presidential election. The Associated Press reported that Gonzalez had significantly more votes than Maduro.
Gonzalez and Machado have called for citizens who have protested against Maduro to remain peaceful and to gather Tuesday morning to celebrate what the opposition says are the real election results.
“I speak to you with the calmness of the truth,” Gonzalez said. “We have in our hands the tally sheets that demonstrate our categorical and mathematically irreversible victory.”
In the announcement, Machado told the country’s media that the tally sheets she had in her possession showed that Gonzalez received 6.2 million votes while Maduro received 2.7 million, according to the AP.
“A free people is one that is respected, and we are going to fight for our freedom,” Gonzalez said. “Dear friends, I understand your indignation, but our response from the democratic sectors is of calmness and firmness.”
Conversely, Maduro has continued to insist that he was victorious. The National Electoral Council, the country’s governing board regarding elections, declared Maduro the winner. However, the council is allegedly controlled by Maduro’s socialist party and loyal to the current president. The NEC’s declaration of Maduro as the winner does not come as a surprise. However, its lack of honesty and objectivity taints the election and raises serious credibility concerns.
Maduro, meanwhile, is dismissing any suggestions that he lost as conspiratorial and the efforts of fascists.
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“We have never been moved by hatred. On the contrary, we have always been victims of the powerful,” Maduro said during a nationally televised ceremony acknowledging his supposed victory. “An attempt is being made to impose a coup d’etat in Venezuela again of a fascist and counterrevolutionary nature.”
“We already know this movie, and this time, there will be no kind of weakness,” he said.
Maduro emphasized that the country’s law “will be respected,” according to the report.
