CARACAS (Reuters) -Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in the country's presidential election in the early hours of Monday morning, even as the country's opposition said its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez was the victor and it had the polling to prove it.
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE COUNT?
The country's electoral authority (CNE) said just after midnight on Monday that Maduro had won a third six-year term with 51% of the vote.
The authority said Gonzalez won 44%, but opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said opposition candidate Gonzalez had secured 70% of the vote and that multiple independent exit polls and quick counts decisively showed his victory.
Gonzalez said he was not calling for supporters to take to the streets or commit any acts of violence and Machado said the opposition has copies of about 40% of voting records.
Edison Research, known for its polling of U.S. elections, had predicted in an exit poll that Gonzalez would win 65% of the vote, while Maduro would win 31%.
Local firm Meganalisis predicted a 65% vote for Gonzalez and just under 14% for Maduro.
WAS VOTING PEACEFUL?
The government said that except for some isolated minor incidents, voting was peaceful.
Motorcycle-riding ruling party supporters known as 'collectives' clashed briefly in the evening with opposition supporters outside the country's largest polling place, a school in central Caracas.
Armed collectives were reported in at least six other locations, according to a local NGO, which also reported the gun death of one man in the border state of Tachira during a confrontation with collective members.
The tense campaign was marked by arrests of opposition figures and other moves by the authorities that the opposition said were meant to prevent a fair election.
Maduro, a former bus driver who was the hand-picked successor of his mentor Hugo Chavez, has been in power since Chavez's death in 2013.
His government has presided over a sharp economic and social deterioration. The U.S. reimposed oil sanctions in April, accusing Maduro of reneging on deals reached with the opposition to ensure free elections.
WHO IS GONZALEZ?
A long-time but low-profile member of the opposition, Gonzalez, 74, a former diplomat, is known for his calm demeanor.
He was originally registered as a placeholder in March, after neither primary winner Machado nor her alternate were able to register. In April, he was named as the opposition's definitive candidate.
Machado, 56, has thrown herself into campaigning for Gonzalez.
The two - speaking to large crowds around the country - have employed emotional rhetoric, including about their hope for the many who have emigrated from Venezuela in recent years to return home.
WHAT WAS THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE?
The United States has serious concerns that the results announced by the electoral authority do not reflect the votes of the people, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, asking that a detailed tabulation of votes be published.
Meanwhile, reactions from Latin American leaders were mixed.
Argentine President Javier Milei called the official result fraud, while Costa Rica and Peru rejected it and Chile said it would not accept any result that was not verifiable.
Cuba, Honduras and Bolivia cheered Maduro's victory.