Venezuela's government-friendly electoral council announced early on Monday that Nicolás Maduro has won the presidential elections. Speaking in Caracas, Elvis Amoroso said that, with 80% of the votes tallied, Maduro got 51.2% of the vote, beating the opposition's Edmundo González Urrutia, who got 44%.2. Turnout was 59%, he added.
The opposition had been anticipating the chance that the government would conduct a fraudulent process, saying they had stopped receiving vote certificates. Moreover, Edison Research, which performs exit polling at major American elections, published figures showing that Edmundo González had a 64% to 31% lead over Maduro. According to Juan Forero, the Wall Street Journal bureau chief for South America, Edison polled 6465 Venezuelan voters across 100 polling stations.
