Maduro narrowly wins Venezuelan Presidential vote
VENEZUELA: Venezuelan Acting President Nicolas Maduro narrowly
won the Presidential elections with 50.66 percent of the votes, National
Electoral Council’s President Tibisay Lucena said on Sunday. With 99.2
percent of the ballots counted, Maduro defeated his opposition
challenger Henrique Capriles, who gained 49.07 percent of the votes.
The turnout of Sunday’s vote was 78.71 percent, according to Lucena.
Maduro, candidate from the ruling United Socialist Party, will
complete the remaining time of the six-year term left by late President
Hugo Chavez starting from January.
The results surprised many as opinion polls before the vote had gave
Maduro a nearly 10-point lead over Capriles from the opposition
Democratic Unity Roundtable coalition.
Venezuela’s Presidential election was held peacefully Sunday, with
the final results expected to be released by the National Electoral
Council (CNE) a few hours later.
Venezuelans called for a presidential election after the death of
former president Hugo Chavez on March 5 and they will decide on the
country’s political, economic and social future by choosing between the
heir of Chavez, acting president Nicolas Maduro, and the opposition
candidate Henrique Capriles for a six-year term.
The election proceeded with normality and peace, according to CNE
reports and Plan Republica, the military operation deployed to guarantee
security in the voting stations.
According to Venezuela’s General Attorney Luis Ortega Diaz, more than
2,000 officials of the public prosecutor’s offices were deployed in
13,810 electoral centers, which include 39,322 voting stations in the
country and abroad.
The election was guarded by more than 125,000 police officers and
141,000 military elements.
Meanwhile, Acting President Nicolas Maduro defended the country’s
electoral system by saying that the system was “perfect” after he voted
Sunday afternoon at Miguel Antonio Caro Bolivarian High School in
western Caracas.
“You cannot attack a perfect electoral system to justify yourself.
You have to have standings,” he accused the opposition candidate.
Maduro stressed that the electoral system has become the “most
reliable, transparent and fast, internationally recognized” system in
the whole world.
Henrique Capriles, Presidential candidate of the opposition
coalition, when asked by reporters about the transparency of the CNE at
a press conference after he cast vote, said he was confident that the
elections will reflect people’s will. “Even though there are complaints
in the process, no one will know who you vote for, by that I mean that
the votes impose the will of the people,” he said.
Most of the polls showed that Maduro leads with a margin of 20
percentage points in the race against Capriles.
The polling stations opened at 6 a.m. local time (1030 GMT) and
closed at 6 p.m. (2230 GMT).
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