Venezuela Election Results Pending Hours After Tense Vote

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(Bloomberg) — The results of Venezuela’s presidential election remain undisclosed more than four hours after polls began to close on Sunday in a widely attended vote that’s posed the greatest threat yet to Nicolás Maduro’s hold on power. 

Maduro repeatedly said in the final weeks of his campaign that the first bulletin from the electoral authority would come at 10 p.m. Polls closed at 6 p.m., but centers remained open as long as there were people waiting in line to cast their ballots. 

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Representatives of Maduro told reporters late Sunday they couldn’t divulge results yet but were prepared to celebrate later. Edmundo González, who’s challenging Maduro to become the next president, and opposition leader María Corina Machado, expressed similar optimism.

Videos posted on social media showed crowds starting to gather outside of major polling stations across Venezuela on Sunday evening, with citizens requesting receipts of the tabulations from the authorities. Meanwhile, state TV showed people celebrating outside the presidential palace.

It’s possible that the delay is a result of a tight race that requires counting more votes to declare a winner. Should the voting agency withhold the physical tabulation of votes, it will be very hard for the opposition to contest official numbers.

This election has been the first in more than a decade where democracy seems within reach to Venezuelans. Voters turned out enmasse starting early in the morning, with long lines at polling stations in Caracas most of the day. 

While the election appeared to proceed without major incident, there were some reports of delays in the quick vote count at centers and the presence of pro-government motorcycle gangs known as colectivos, who intimidate voters. That’s all become typical in the country’s elections.

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At the largest polling center in the nation, located in downtown Caracas, dozens of men on motorcycles, identified as government supporters, sieged civilians who had lined up to await the public audit of the vote after polls closed. Violent clashes between the two groups erupted before the police arrived to control the situation. There were reports of some clashes at the center in the morning, too. 

Agustin Brito, a 61-year-old voter, said he came by the center after he heard about the incidents earlier in the day.

“I wanted to come here and witness the irregularities,” he said. “This has been a very uneven election, where one of side had all the toys and resources, and the other side is scraping by.”

The Venezuelan diaspora, too, has been eagerly awaiting the election results. In Santiago, local media reported that so many had gathered outside the Venezuelan embassy that the police had to close down streets. In Bogotá, street vendors downtown sold Venezuelan flags, and the occasional shout of “Libertad!” (“Freedom!”) could be heard amid the celebrations. In Buenos Aires, people gathered in the streets with Venezuelan flags, and a father painted his face in the country’s colors of yellow, blue and red. 

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For Maduro, the election is testing a quarter century of Chavismo, Venezuela’s brand of socialism, in the face of the meteoric rise of a fervent citizen movement that his government tried to suppress. Machado rose to popularity on promises of dismantling government controls on the economy, privatizing the oil industry and reuniting families torn apart by the exodus of 7.7 million Venezuelans. After the government banned her from running for office, she campaigned alongside González.

Maduro’s government has done what it could to quell the energy behind the opposition over the last few months. More than 100 people who aided González or Machado in any way have been arrested this year, according to nonprofit Foro Penal. Locals at a recent rally say the government went as far as drilling potholes into roads to stop Machado’s supporters from reaching her. Maduro also went as far to embark on an ambitious social media rebranding campaign to soften his image. 

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