Venezuela's opposition has claimed victory in the nation's presidential election, setting up a showdown with the government, which earlier declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
"The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened," opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez said in his first remarks since the result was announced.
Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado made the announcement claiming victory while standing alongside Gonzalez, whose margin of victory she said was "overwhelming".
Machado said the opposition had voting tallies from about 40 per cent of ballot boxes nationwide, with more expected overnight.
The National Electoral Council, which is controlled by Maduro loyalists, has yet to provide the tallies from the nation's 30,000 polling booths.
Earlier Elvis Amoroso, head of the council, said Maduro secured 51 per cent of the vote on Sunday, overcoming opposition candidate Gonzalez, who he said garnered 44 per cent.
He said the results were based on 80 per cent of voting stations, marking an irreversible trend.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has "serious concerns" about the result announced by the council.
"We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people," he said in Tokyo on Monday, shortly after the Electoral Council announcement.
"It's critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently, that the electoral authorities immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay and that the electoral authorities publish the tabulation of votes.
"The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly."
The delay in announcing results - six hours after polls were supposed to close - indicated a deep debate inside the government about how to proceed after Maduro's opponents came out early in the evening all but claiming victory.
Maduro, in seeking a third term, faced his toughest challenge yet from Gonzalez, a retired diplomat who was unknown to voters before being tapped in April as a last-minute stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado.
The election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas, with government opponents and supporters alike signalling their interest in joining the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans who have already migrated should Maduro win another six-year term.
Authorities set Sunday's election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former president Hugo Chavez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro.
But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushing wages, spurring hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families due to migration.
Maduro, 61, faces an opposition that has lined up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts.
Machado was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years.
The former lawmaker swept the opposition's October primary with more than 90 per cent of the vote.
After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a university professor as her substitute, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering, resulting in Gonzalez, a political newcomer, being chosen.
After voting, Maduro said he would recognise the election result and urged the other nine candidates to publicly declare that they would do the same.
Venezuela sits atop the world's largest proven oil reserves and once boasted Latin America's most advanced economy, but it entered into a free fall after Maduro took the helm.
Plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages and hyperinflation led to social unrest and then mass emigration.
Economic sanctions from US seeking to force Maduro from power after his 2018 re-election - which the US and dozens of other countries condemned as illegitimate - only deepened the crisis.
With Reuters
Australian Associated Press
