Maduro wins contradicting exit polls

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro won a third term with 51% of the vote, despite multiple exit polls showing an opposition victory, Venezuela's electoral authorities said after midnight on Monday.

Authorities said opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won 44% of the vote, although the opposition had earlier said there was “reason to celebrate” and asked supporters to continue monitoring the vote count.

Maduro, who appeared at the presidential palace to cheer supporters, said his re-election was a victory for peace and stability and reiterated claims he made on the campaign trail that Venezuela's electoral system is transparent.

Edison Research, known for its polling of U.S. elections, predicted in exit polls that Gonzalez would win 65% of the vote and Maduro 31%.

Local firm Meganalisis predicted Gonzalez would get 65% of the vote and Maduro just under 14%.

Elvis Amoroso, president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said in a televised statement that around 80% of the ballot boxes had been counted, adding that the results had been compromised due to an “attack” on the electoral data transmission system. put off.

The CNE has asked the justice minister to investigate what Amoroso described as “acts of terror”, adding that the participation rate was 59%.

The opposition said earlier that after 25 years of Socialist Party rule, voters had chosen change.

“The results cannot be hidden. The country peacefully chose to change,” Gonzalez posted on X around 11 p.m. local time before the results were announced.

leader of the opposition Maria Corina Machado Renewed appeal to the country's military Stick to results 's vote.

“Message to the military. The Venezuelan people have said it: they don't want Maduro,” she said earlier on X. that is.

The Venezuelan military has been supporting Maduro, the 61-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister, and there has been no public sign that the armed forces leader is leaving the government.