With 80% of votes counted, the longtime strongman won more than 51% of the vote, besting the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who gained more than 44%, according to a statement by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Maduro will hold office for a third consecutive six-year term – representing the continuity of “Chavismo” in power, which started in 1999 at the hands of former president Hugo Chávez. Maduro has been in power since Chávez’s death in 2013.
The vote has come at a crucial moment for Venezuela, an oil-rich nation that experienced the worst economic crash of a peacetime country in recent history. Maduro has blamed foreign sanctions against his regime, saying Venezuela is victim of an “economic war.”
Meanwhile, the opposition — which has been galvanized this election cycle, posing the most significant threat to Maduro’s grip on power in years — had promised to restore Venezuela’s democracy and rebuild the economy if they won.
Tears and celebrations
Voters had turned out in droves, with many saying they would leave the country if Maduro won — pointing to violent repression and economic collapse under his rule.
The results were met with mixed emotions in the capital Caracas, with Maduro supporters cheering and celebrating outside the president’s official residence. Meanwhile, opposition supporters were seen crying and hugging on the streets.
Earlier Sunday evening, opposition leaders claimed there were election irregularities — including opposition witnesses being denied access to the CNE headquarters as the authority counted votes, and the CNE allegedly halting data being sent from local polling stations to their central location to prevent more votes from being processed.
The run up to the vote was also marred by allegations of foul play.
The election campaign saw at least 71 people arbitrarily detained – the majority of whom provided some sort of service to the opposition – and a dozen online media outlets were blocked within the country, according to human rights organization Laboratorio de Paz.
The government also created significant impediments for Venezuelans abroad to vote, including widely unattainable passport and residency requirements.
CNN has reached out to the CNE, which has not responded to the opposition’s allegations.
After the CNE announced Maduro’s win, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”
He added that it was “critical” for votes to be counted fairly and transparently, and called for the CNE to publish its vote tabulations.
The opposition’s accusations may cast doubt on Venezuela returning to the international stage after Maduro pledged last year to hold free and fair elections in US-brokered talks, in exchange for sanctions relief.
Ambar Leáñez grows quiet when she thinks of a future beyond this weekend.
A staunch supporter of Venezuela’s opposition movement, she’s buoyant about her coalition’s chances to win this Sunday’s presidential election. The thought of another six years under the incumbent – Venezuela’s entrenched authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro – would drive her to flee the country, she says.
“The alternative is to go somewhere else to look for a better life,” she told CNN.
This Sunday’s vote will be a consequential moment for Venezuela, and particularly for many young opposition voters who tell CNN they will emigrate if there is no political change.
Often divided among its many political parties, Venezuela’s anti-government coalition has united behind a single presidential candidate, Edmundo González.
Many experts believe that González could pose Maduro’s toughest political challenge to date. On top of a galvanized opposition, pressure from the international community and Venezuela’s oil sector have led to a series of agreements that paved the way to a competitive election this year.
Supporters of Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at the Central University of Venezuela UCV in Caracas on July 14, 2024.
On Friday, members of a young opposition group in Maracay, a mid-size city in central Venezuela, took to the streets with fliers and slogans to galvanize votes for González. A few years ago, openly calling for Maduro’s removal here could have invited trouble.
But the group, called “Neighbors for Venezuela,” campaigned without incident. Leañez among them shouting anti-Maduro slogans in the city’s market: “Urgent, we need a new president!”
Another protester, Julio César Pérez, described the choice looming on Sunday in stark terms: “For me, it’s change or the Darién.”
Fellow protester VÃctor Medina agrees. “The plan B is packing your bags and the border,” he told CNN. “I can’t see myself living another six years under this government. I can’t give up my future, I’m out of here.”
Thousands of Venezuelans have already trekked through jungles and rivers in the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panamá to head northward toward the United States.
If Maduro remains in power, experts predict that millions more may follow. One poll conducted in June by Venezuelan firm ODH Consultores, estimates up to a third of the population is considering leaving the country after the election.
“I don’t want to leave!” has become a popular chant among opposition supporters.
Most people in Venezuela know someone who has emigrated already. Large numbers of Venezuelans now live in Colombia, Per̼, and Brazil, and growing numbers have attempted relocating to the United States Рpart of a significant election year issue for American voters.
Leáñez’s uncle, Rafael Cabrera, moved to Miami in 2021. On a videocall to his niece in Maracay, he expressed anger that he would not be able to vote on Sunday – Venezuelans living abroad are not allowed to vote by mail, and Venezuela doesn’t have consular representation in the US, which means there are no paths to the vote for Cabrera.
To join him one day, Leáñez said she would consider migrating as an undocumented migrant. “I would wish to migrate as legally as possible, but it’s is one of the cards in my hand. An option… What else could I do?” she said.
On the campaign trail, both Venezuela’s current government and the opposition are urging Venezuelans abroad to return.
Since 2018, a government-sponsored “Return to the Homeland” program organized free flights for more than 10.000 Venezuelan migrants who wished to come back from other Latin American countries.
“We have gone through a bad stretch, really bad, but we’re getting better, we’re improving… to all Venezuelans abroad […] come home!” Maduro said last month.
González has called migration a “drama” that every Venezuelan family has endured. “It’s something that we must find a solution for, immediately. We ask them to come back and to help us to rebuild the country,” he told CNN.
It’s an issue that has touched the top leaders of the opposition movement personally – though they have chosen to stay and fight, in a battle for Venezuela’s future that will be decided on Sunday.
González’s own daughter and his two grandchildren live in Madrid, Spain. He is able to see them “about once a year, otherwise it’s videocall,” he told CNN.
Opposition leader MarÃa Corina Machado, who has campaigned alongside González after being barred from running as a candidate, has endured a familiar separation, with her three adult children and their families all living abroad.
“When I walk by their rooms, I have to turn my head away. It’s not something you get used to,” she told CNN.
