Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro has won a third term, the Electoral Council (CNE) announced on Monday.
Maduro won about 51% of the vote, beating opposition candidate Edmundo González, who won about 44%, the CNE said.
Ten candidates ran in the presidential election. Several pre-election polls gave González an edge over Maduro, who has been in power in the South American country for eleven turbulent years.
Before the elections, few observers inside and outside Venezuela expected the elections to be free and fair.
In the run-up to election day, many opposition members were arrested and candidates who were critical of the government were not allowed to run for office.
In total, about 21.6 million people were eligible to vote, including people abroad. The elections in Venezuela are won with a simple majority in the first round.
Maduro, who won a second term in 2018 elections widely criticized as undemocratic, has suffered an economic collapse — including hyperinflation, acute shortages of goods and a drop in oil production — that has sent some 7.7 million Venezuelans fleeing abroad, according to the United Nations.
He has also cracked down on the opposition, with UN investigators accusing the government of serious human rights violations, including thousands of killings by security forces.
Maduro was first elected president in April 2013, following the death of his predecessor Hugo Chávez, under whom he had served as vice president.
But despite economic turmoil and US-backed efforts to oust him, Maduro has managed to cling to power.
