Venezuela’s President Maduro wins reelection

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro was reelected for a second six-year term in presidential elections on Sunday, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE).

Some 14,638 voting centers have been set up nationwide for Venezuela’s more than 20.5 million eligible voters, who are also voting for state legislators. The voting concluded smoothly at 18:00 local time on Sunday.

In Venezuela’s capital–Caracas, many lined up outside polling stations in the morning. Delcy Rodriguez, President of the Constitutional Assembly of Venezuela, also casted her ballot at a polling station.

“The turnout is very good. I just attended a press conference of campaign committee of the ruling party and that event disclosed the data we have so far (till Sunday noon). More than 2.5 million Venezuelan voters have casted their ballots,” she said.

The ballots were recorded electronically, which made the voting quick and easy. The government added troops around the polling stations to ensure safety and the violence that occurred during a constituent assembly voting last year didn’t happen this time.

The opposition coalition once called on its supporters to give up the vote, so in the opposition stronghold voters were not that many, but still the whole process went smoothly.

Some 150 international observers from 30 countries and international organizations are in Venezuela for the elections.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, former Spanish Prime Minister and also an international observer, gave a positive feedback about the presidential elections.

“I do not have any doubt about the voting process. It is an advanced automatic voting system. I come here to keep peace, coordinate and promote dialogue so as to improve the democratic mechanism here. What I need to do here is to see whether people can cast their ballots at their own discretion. Now we all see how people vote, don’t we?” he said.