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Excerpt from amp.theguardian.comNicolás Maduro’s claim of victory in Venezuela’s presidential election has brought the South American country to a hazardous standoff, with his thwarted opponents accusing him of rigging the election to remain in power, and many leaders in the region and beyond questioning the veracity and transparency of the vote.
Sunday’s results, which followed an election described by independent observers as the most arbitrary in recent years – even by the standards of the authoritarian regime founded by Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez – appeared to have dashed opposition hopes of ending a quarter of a century of chavista rule and economic turmoil.
After a six-hour delay in releasing the results prompted international concern, the government-controlled electoral authority claimed Maduro had won with 51.21% of votes compared with 44.2% for his rival, the former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.
The council said that with about 80% of votes counted, Maduro had secured more than 5m compared with González’s 4.4m. Authorities delayed releasing the results from each of Venezuela’s 30,000 polling stations, saying only that they would be released in the “coming hours”.
