‘We Won And Everyone Knows It’: Two Candidates Claim Victory In Venezuela’s Hotly Disputed Presidential Elections

Both major candidates in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential elections claimed victory on Sunday amid domestic and international concerns that the process may have been rigged, according to multiple reports.

Incumbent President Nicolás Maduro, widely considered a dictator and deeply unpopular among the Venezuelan population, gathered 51% of the vote on Sunday, while his opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, won only 44% of the vote, according to the National Electoral Council (NCE), CNN reported. But Maduro’s opposition claimed that independent polling showed that Gonzalez actually won 70% of the vote, beating out Maduro in a landslide victory.

“We won, and everyone knows it,” opposition leader Maria Corina told reporters, according to CNN. “The entire international community knows what happened in Venezuela and how people voted for change.”

Protests almost immediately broke out across Venezuela in retaliation for Maduro’s dubious claim to victory. Some members of the international community immediately called into question the legitimacy of the election results and urged political transparency.

“We’ve seen the announcement just a short while ago by the Venezuelan electoral commission. We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference on Sunday, according to Reuters.

“GET OUT, MADURO, YOU DICTATOR!!!” Argentinian President Javier Milei wrote in a social media post on Sunday, as translated