The results of the Venezuelan presidential election were announced a few minutes after midnight on Monday, July 29. Immediately, in the streets of Caracas, the cry of "fraud!" resounded here and there. Nicolas Maduro, 61, was re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with 51.2% of the vote, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled by Chavism (the regime founded by Hugo Chavez in 1999). His opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, the candidate backed by the major opposition parties, obtained 44.2%. The other eight candidates split the remainder. According to these official results, fewer than 10 million of the 21 million registered voters cast their ballots. Between 4 and 5 million adults who emigrated were unable to take part. The opposition's disappointment is immense, and it is convinced that the government stole the election.

The result contradicts all the polls carried out by the opposition in the weeks leading up to the vote as well as Sunday's exit polls. They also contradict the sentiment of many Venezuelans who are convinced of being in the majority, whether they have always hated socialism or, for the first time in 25 years, decided to "vote for change."

Late at night, Gonzalez urged his supporters to avoid demonstrations and violence, pending more precise instructions. Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader who, having been declared ineligible, was unable to stand as a candidate, asserted that Gonzalez had been elected with 70% of the vote, and appealed to the military, who "have a duty to ensure that the popular sovereignty expressed in the vote is respected."

Public television channels continued to broadcast images of the concert held on the stage set up for the occasion in front of the presidential palace. As soon as the results were announced, President Maduro appeared before hundreds of supporters gathered to celebrate another victory for the Bolivarian revolution.

The president of the CNE, Elvis Amoroso, said that the result, with 80% of the ballots counted, was "irreversible." He denounced an attack on the computerized voting system to explain the delay in the results. On the podium, Maduro accused "the far-right opposition" of being behind the problem "so that they could once again cry fraud." The Venezuelan opposition covers a broad political spectrum, from the ultra-neoliberal right to the radical left, including those disillusioned with Chavism, who are now exasperated by the government's inefficiency and corruption scandals.

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