Delcy Rodriguez | Photo: AVN

Delcy Rodriguez, the President of Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly, said the calls for an abstention in the country's presidential election were defeated Sunday.

Highlighting the turnout figure of 46.1 percent published by the National Electoral Council (CNE) Rodriguez said: "This is the answer of a people who want to live peacefully.”

With 92.6 percent of the votes counted, Maduro had 5.8 million votes, with his closest rival, former governor Henri Falcón getting 1.8 million votes, according to CNE President Tibisay Lucena who added that in total, 8.6 million Venezuelans voted, out of an electorate of 20.5 million people.

"As president of the National Constituent Assembly, I’m very pleased with the civic behavior of the Venezuelan people. They have rejected extremist elements, violent elements, and those who have impinged against the constitutional order," Rodriguez during a press conference.

She added: "The Venezuelan people have been demonstrating in the right way, peacefully, the path of democratic coexistence, by exercising their right to vote. So the extremist elements, those who promoted abstentionism, were defeated. However, I can say, as the president has said, that we’re not going to stop chasing all the possible avenues for dialogue, so they can finally understand the Venezuelan reality. So that they stop their incoherent and ignorant portrayal of our people."

Maduro’s main competitor Henri Falcon, who had promised to change Venezuela’s currency, Falcon said he wouldn't recognize the results, claiming that they were "illegitimate." He blamed abstentionist sectors of the opposition for his loss and called for new elections to be called for October.

Some 150 international observers from 30 countries and international organizations were in Venezuela for the elections.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, former Spanish Prime Minister and also an international observer, gave positive feedback about the presidential elections.

"I do not have any doubt about the voting process. It is an advanced automatic voting system. I come here to keep the peace, coordinate and promote dialogue to improve the democratic mechanism here. What I need to do here is to see whether people can cast their ballots at their own discretion. Now we all see how people vote, don't we?" he said.



Falcon, Bertucci Refuse to Recognize Venezuela Election Results
Former Venezuelan presidential candidate Henri Falcon said that he will not recognize the results of the presidential and legislative elections that were held Sunday.

“We will not recognize this electoral process as valid... we categorically reject it,” Falcon said before the release of the results by the National Electoral Council (CNE). The former candidate argues that some political groups did not fulfill pre-electoral agreements, and called for elections to be held again in October 2018.

“Without any doubt, the process is not legitimate, and we do not recognize the electoral process... for us, there were not elections,” Falcon said.

Hope for Change Movement presidential candidate, Javier Bertucci, who came in third, said that he, also, will not recognize the process.

President Nicolas Maduro won the election on Sunday night, gaining a second six-year term, with over 5.8 million votes.

With 92.6 percent of the votes counted, Maduro had 5.8 million votes while his closest rival and former Governor Henri Falcon won 1.8 million, according to CNE President Tibisay Lucena, who added that, in total, 8.6 million Venezuelans voted, out of an electoral registry of 20.5 million people.

Zapatero Offers to Host Venezuela Government-Opposition Talks

Zapatero (L) offers to mediate talks between Maduro (R) and opposition. | Photo: Reuters FILE

Former Spanish Prime Minister (PM) and international monitor for Venezuela's election, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, offers to mediate dialogue between Venezuela's government and opposition.

“It is not only necessary, it is essential" to collaborate and help a "brotherly and very close country like Venezuela,” the ex-PM said, urging opposition to direct any disagreement with the results of the Venezuelan elections through the appropriate channel.

“They have every right to establish a challenge to the facts they have placed on the table, it is part of the democratic exercise and this challenge will have to be substantiated through the channels contemplated” in the National Electoral Council (CNE) ), Zapatero said in an interview with Efe.

"Elections are held one day but the next day the future of Venezuelans is at stake," Zapatero explained, adding that it is important to sit down to dialogue because peace is above any situation.

The former secretary general of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party said: “tomorrow we have a government in Venezuela, an opposition, some very important economic problems, social problems that will surely need changes by of all.”

The former Spanish Prime Minister stated that from his “perspective there has to be a principle of responsibility of the political forces, starting... by President Maduro to do everything necessary for a dialogue and an agreement.”

Former Venezuelan presidential candidates, ex-Governor Henri Falcon and Javier Bertucci have made accusations of more than 1,000 irregularities during the polls and called for a repeat of the elections.

Editorial Comment: Still awaiting international condemnation

"The voting system in Venezuela cannot be technically challenged in any serious way. It is open, transparent, leaves a voter-verified paper record and can easily be recounted if there are any questions about the results. It prevents voter fraud, as a fingerprint is needed to start someone's voting process."

Kevin Zeese,
Popular Resistance