NICHOLAS MADURO HAS been declared the victor in the Venzualan presidential elections, taking 51% of the vote. Opposition leaders have already rejected vote.

Maduro, who will enter his third term in office, beat out rival Edmundo Gonzalez, who took 44% of the vote.

Opposition officials were quick to denounce the results. Exit polls in the lead-up to the ballot put Gonzalez as a comfortable winner, and his supporters took to the streets in early celebration after polling stations closed.

However, these exit poll numbers were rejected by the government, who relied on their own numbers to predict a Maduro victory.

While Maduro has declared his victory in a speech after the announcement, the opposition have done the same.

“We want to say to all of Venezuela and the world that Venezuela has a new president-elect and it is Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia,” said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told journalists. “We won.” she added.

The result has already been denounced by a number of Latin American leaders.

Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves denounced it as “fraudulent,” while Chile’s president described it as “hard to believe.”

The US has also expressed “serious concerns” at the result.

Maduro was first elected President in 2013, taking the reigns from his party’s founder, Hugo Chavéz after his death.

The country has seen an 80% drop in GDP in the last ten years. Outside observers have blamed government corruption and mimanagement, but the government has pointed to crippling sanctions imposed primarily by the US.

About 21 million Venezuelans were registered as voters, but only an estimated 17 million still in the country were eligible to cast ballots.

With reporting by © AFP 2024 and the Press Association.