Nicolas Maduro Wins Venezuelan Presidential Elections
President Nicolas Maduro won the Venezuelan presidential elections Sunday, gaining a second presidential term for six years with more than 5.8 million votes, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced Sunday night.
With 92.6 percent of the votes counted, Maduro had 5.8 million votes, while his closest rival, former governor Henri FalcĂłn getting 1.8 million votes, said CNE President Tibisay Lucena who added that in total, 8.6 million Venezuelans voted, out of an electoral registry of 20.5 million people.
"We are the force of history turned into popular victory," Maduro told his supporters after the CNE announcement. "Thank you to facing so many aggressions and lies, thank you for overcoming it, and for making me president of Venezuela for the next term."
"I want to congratulate the revolutionary youth in Venezuela and all social movements in Venezuela for this victory," Maduro said. "I look to the future, and I propose to all the leaders of the opposition to meet and talk about Venezuela. Democratically, let's resolve Venezuela's problems."
Maduroâs main electoral opposition was Henri Falcon, who had promised to convert Venezuelaâs currency to the U.S.-dollar.In the hour before the results were announced, Falcon said that he wasn't going to recognize the results, that they were "illegitimate." He blamed abstentionist sectors of the opposition for his loss, and called for new elections to be called for October.