In spite of exit polls that suggested a big win for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro still claimed victory in yesterday’s presidential election. The national election authority said last night that Maduro had won with 51 percent of the vote, a result immediately challenged by the opposition. (Reuters)
Our Take
None of the speculation in the lead-up to yesterday’s vote had been about who would win—polls always showed Gonzalez winning by a large margin. Instead, the question was always how Maduro would respond to that result. So far, and as expected, Maduro is trying to steal the election, rushing to declare himself the victor as soon as the polls closed yesterday.
The real outcome is yet to be determined, however, and it will depend on a number of factors. For one, there’s the opposition’s response. We know they planned for a scenario like this, as opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said as much in an interview with WPR last week. But their next move isn’t yet clear, with Gonzalez so far only saying he was not calling on supporters to take to the streets or break the law.