The Latest: Maduro is declared winner as opposition claims irregularities
Nicolás Maduro has been declared the winner in Venezuela’s presidential election Sunday, even as his opponents were preparing to dispute the results, setting up a high-stakes showdown that will determine whether the South American nation transitions away from one party rule
Venezuelans are voting in a presidential election whose outcome will either lead to a seismic shift in politics or extend by six more years the policies that caused the world’s worst peacetime economic collapse.
Whether it is President Nicolás Maduro who is chosen or his main opponent, former diplomat Edmundo González, Sunday’s election will have ripple effects throughout the Americas. That’s because government opponents and supporters alike have signaled their interest in emigrating if Maduro wins the election.
More than 7.7 million people have already left the country. An estimated 17 million Venezuelans are eligible to vote.
González is representing a coalition of opposition parties after being selected in April as a stand-in for opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, who was blocked by the Maduro-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice. For once, the opposition factions have managed to unite behind a single candidate.
