Tuesday is predicted to see protests in Venezuela by both the opposition and the ruling party following President Nicolas Maduro’s disputed election victory. The opposition claims its candidate won handily.
With 51% of the vote, Maduro was declared the winner of a third term, extending 25 years of socialist government, according to election authorities on Monday.
However, the opposition said that Edmundo Gonzalez, the candidate running against Maduro, had won an overwhelming victory, garnering more than twice as many votes as the leader, according to the 73% of voting tallies that they have access to.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado remarked, “My dear Venezuelans, tomorrow we meet; as a family, organized, demonstrating the determination we have to make every vote count and defend the truth.”Legislator for the ruling party Jorge Rodriguez, who also served as Maduro’s campaign manager, encouraged supporters of the administration to march to the presidential palace in Miraflores.
Gonzalez has issued a warning against violence, but Rodriguez charged that the opposition was encouraging violence.
Maduro stated in a Monday night speech that his administration “knows how to confront this situation and defeat those who are violent,” but he also declared his support for nonviolence.
After President Hugo Chavez passed away in 2013, 61-year-old Maduro, a former bus driver and foreign minister, assumed government. The United States and others view Maduro as a tyrant and believe that his 2018 reelection was rigged.
