The power of President Nicolas Maduro won 20 of the 23 governor’s positions and the Town Hall of Caracas against a divided opposition who participated for the first time in a vote since 2017
Le Monde with AFP
The power of President Nicolas Maduro, whose re-election to the presidency of Venezuela in 2018 is not recognized by part of the international community, won an overwhelming victory in the regional elections of Sunday, November 21, according to the ad official of the National Electoral Council (CNE).
The power has won 20 governor’s positions and the Town Hall of Caracas in the face of a divided opposition that has been participating for the first time in a vote since 2017 after boycotting the presidential election and the legislative.
The European Union had deployed an electoral mission, the first for fifteen years in this oil country of 30 million inhabitants affected by a serious economic crisis. The mission will present a report on Tuesday.
A late closure of suspicious offices
The participation rate was 41.8% with 8.1 million voters, according to provisional official results with 90.21% of recorded votes. The opposition won three states: the island of Nueva Esparta, Cojedes and especially the Zulia, the most populous oil state of the country whose capital is Maracaïbo, the second largest city of Venezuela.
“Beautiful triumph, beautiful victory, beautiful harvest, work product”, immediately exhilated President Maduro, speaking of “overwhelming results”.
Before the announcement of the results, the Caprils Hanrique opponent, twice seconds of the presidential election, had issued reservations considering that the late closure of polling stations was a source of possible fraud: “Maduro and his party order the CNE not to close the offices when there are no more voters (…) They will put us votes that do not exist, “he wrote on Twitter.
More than the result, the ballot is considered important because it constitutes a starting point for both power, which seeks to raise the sanctions that weigh on the country, and for opposition in search of reconstruction before the presidential election of 2024.