Costa Rican President considers Maduro’s proclamation as winner “fraudulent”

The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves Robles, described the proclamation of Nicolas Maduro as president of Venezuela for a third consecutive term following the elections held this Sunday.

“The Government of Costa Rica categorically repudiates the proclamation of Nicolás Maduro as president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which we consider fraudulent”indicates a statement signed by the Costa Rican president.

The document adds that Costa Rica will work with “the democratic governments of the continent and international organizations to ensure that the sacred will of the Venezuelan people is respected.”

According to the first report from Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), Maduro was re-elected for a third consecutive term this Sunday, in an election in which he obtained 51.2% of the votes (5,150,092 votes), while the standard-bearer of the majority opposition, Edmundo González Urrutia, obtained 4,445,978 votes, which represents 44.2% of the votes.

Other countries such as the United States, Chile, Peru, Argentina and Guatemala have already expressed “doubts” about the outcome of the elections and some have even announced that they will not recognize Maduro as president of Venezuela.

According to the CNE, the details of the results, table by table, will be published on its website “in the next few hours” and the 38 political parties that competed will be given a digital report on the outcome of the electoral contest.

Maria Corina Machado

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado urged the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) to “enforce respect for popular sovereignty” as expressed in Sunday’s presidential elections, in which she claims the candidate of the largest anti-Chavez bloc, Edmundo González Urrutia, won, and not President Nicolás Maduro, as announced by the electoral body.

“The military citizens were there (…) the duty of the National Armed Forces is to respect the popular sovereignty expressed in the vote, and that is what we Venezuelans expect from each of our military personnel,” said Machado, the main supporter of González Urrutia, standard-bearer of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD).

According to the former deputy, the announcement by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which gives victory to Maduro with 51.2% of the votes, “is impossible”, since, according to the more than 40% of the votes they have received, González Urrutia obtained 70%, while the head of state – indicated Machado – 30%.