VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS Maduro has declared that Christmas will come early this year, on 1 October, as he seeks to impart some holiday cheer after a disputed presidential election the opposition claims he stole.

The 61-year-old is set for a third six-year term despite an outcry from the opposition and international community over the results of a 28 July election.

“In homage to you, in gratitude to you, I am going to decree that Christmas be brought forward to 1 October,” Maduro said during a television appearance Monday.

It is not the first time that Maduro has changed the date of Christmas since taking the reins of the Catholic-majority country from Hugo Chavez in 2013.

This time, the move appears to be a move to distract the populace from anger over the election the opposition claims it rightfully won.

The United States and several Latin American countries support the Venezuelan opposition’s claim to victory, while even Maduro-friendly Mexico, Colombia and Brazil have refused to recognize the official result without seeing detailed vote tallies.

The elections agency has said it cannot publish the records as hackers had corrupted the data, though observers have said there was no evidence of that.

Prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia — who is in hiding — over his insistence that he won the polls.

“Nobody in this country is above the laws, the institutions, as this … coward Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, has tried to be,” said Maduro.

Protests after Maduro’s alleged victory was announced left 25 civilians and two soldiers dead, nearly 200 people and more than 2,400 jailed.