Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro won a new six-year term on Sunday, Reuters reports.
Nicolas Maduro re-elected President of Venezuela
STEPANAKERT, MAY 21, ARTSAKHPRESS: Maduro’s main rivals disavowed the election alleging massive irregularities.
Victory for the 55-year-old, who replaced Hugo Chavez after his death from cancer in 2013, may trigger a new round of western sanctions against the socialist government as it grapples with a ruinous economic crisis.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is threatening moves against Venezuela’s already reeling oil sector.
Venezuela’s election board, said Maduro took 5.8 million votes, versus 1.8 million for his closest challenger Henri Falcon, a former governor who broke with an opposition boycott to stand.
“They underestimated me,” Maduro told cheering supporters on a stage outside Miraflores presidential palace in downtown Caracas as fireworks sounded and confetti fell on the crowd.
Turnout at the election was just 46.1 percent, the election board said, way down from the 80 percent registered at the last presidential vote in 2013.
