Elections in Venezuela, Polls Close: Counting Underway. Opposition Denounces Fake Government Polls Maduro: “I Will Respect the Vote”

“The United States stands with the Venezuelan people who voted in today’s historic presidential election. The will of the Venezuelan people must be respected,” wrote Vice President Kamala Harris on her personal page.

Most of Venezuela's 15,767 polling stations closed around 6pm local time (midnight in Italy), with more than 21 million people called to vote today. Turnout was high from the early hours, and many polling stations were still active due to voters' presence. The counting process will begin soon.

Opinion polls are banned in Venezuela and the first results will be announced as soon as a trend emerges. President Nicolás Maduro, who is running for a third term, is waiting for the election results at the Miraflores presidential palace. He and his main opponent, former ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia of the United Democratic Party, made a final call to go and vote an hour before the polls closed.

The opposition to the government of Nicolas Maduro has denounced the spread of fake opinion polls showing a significant lead for the incumbent president in the presidential elections currently underway in Venezuela.

The alleged poll – according to which the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) would receive 55% against 35% for his closest rival, the representative of the United Democratic Platform (PUD), Edmundo González – was also repeated by some media close to the government and on the social networks of the former presidents of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and Ecuador, Rafael Correa, historical allies of Chavismo and Maduro. The opposition points out that the company that would have been handling the investigation would be fictitious, considering that its social media accounts appear to have been created only a few weeks ago.

High turnout for today’s presidential election in Venezuela: As evidenced by photos and videos posted on social media, large crowds of people can be seen in front of polling stations across the country. Many Venezuelans began lining up overnight, hours before their polling stations opened, something that has not happened since at least the 2006 elections. There are 30,026 polling stations in the country’s 15,700 public schools, which are the voting centers. In the South American country, voting is done via electronic ballot box, but unlike Brazil, for example, the voter’s vote is also printed, so that the voter has absolute certainty about the vote he or she has chosen. The main opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, who is considered the direct challenger to the outgoing president, Nicolás Maduro, uploaded photos to his profile showing crowded schools. On the X program, the former ambassador celebrated the “massive turnout” and also thanked his fellow migrants. “I greet the Venezuelans abroad who will be voting in different countries very soon, thank you for your participation,” Urrutia wrote.

The main opposition candidate in today’s presidential election in Venezuela, Edmundo González Urrutia, sent a message to his fellow citizens urging them to turn out in large numbers to vote. “Today is the day. Today is your day. Go out and vote!” the former ambassador wrote as they sang the national anthem, one of Machado’s stated demands for the day.

Nicolás Maduro has said he will respect the results of today's presidential election in Venezuela, from which he could emerge defeated. In remarks at the polling station, the president said he would abide by the “sacred word” of the electoral commission when it announces the results of the vote, in which, according to opinion polls, the opposition candidate and former ambassador Edmundo González is leading. Preferred. “No one is going to bring Venezuela into chaos, and that's why we have an electoral rule. I, Nicolás Maduro, pledge to respect the electoral rule and I call on all parties to respect the governing body,” the president announced after voting at Fuerte Tiuna (a military base in Caracas), accompanied by his wife, the first lady and the country's vice president. Ahdaf Flores.