Maduro wins Venezuelan Presidential election!

14:08 01.08.2024 •

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Photo: Reuters

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has won a third term with 51% of the vote, the country’s electoral authority said just after midnight on Monday, despite multiple exit polls which pointed to an opposition ‘win’.

The national electoral authority said just after midnight that Maduro had won a third term with 51% of the vote – a result that would extend a quarter-century of socialist rule.

The authority said opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won 44% of the vote, though the opposition had earlier said it had “reasons to celebrate” and asked supporters to continue monitoring vote counts.

It was not immediately clear exactly what the opposition's next move might be. Gonzalez also said he was not calling for supporters to take to the streets or commit any acts of violence.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had serious concerns that the results announced by the electoral authority did not reflect the votes of the people. The authority is meant to be an independent body but the opposition says it acts as an arm of Maduro's government.

Caracas and Washington have had an adversarial relationship dating back to the era of left-wing populist Hugo Chavez. Maduro – a 61-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister – took office on Chavez's death in 2013 and his 2018 reelection is considered fraudulent by the United States and others, who call him a dictator.

Maduro reiterated his campaign assertion that Venezuela's electoral system is transparent.

He will sign a decree on Monday to hold a "great national dialogue," he said as he celebrated with supporters before cutting a birthday cake for his late mentor Chavez, who would have turned 70 on Sunday.

Edison Research, which conducts high profile election polling in the United States and other countries, published an exit poll showing Gonzalez, a 74-year-old ex-diplomat known for his calm demeanor, had won 65% of the vote, while Maduro won 31%.

Venezuela’s opposition has claimed that it won the July 28 election, accusing President Nicolás Maduro of “fraud”. The supposed evidence that Venezuelan opposition leaders and their allies have cited to justify this claim is an exit poll produced by a firm that is closely linked to the US government and does work for US state propaganda outlets that were founded by the CIA, writes Geopoliticaleconomy.com.

A New Jersey-based company called Edison Research published an exit poll on the day of the election projecting that right-wing candidate Edmundo González Urrutia would win with 65% of the vote, compared to just 31% for Maduro.

This poll was cited by Venezuela’s far-right, US-backed opposition leader Leopoldo López, as well as by billionaire oligarch Elon Musk and Western media outlets like the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.

Many polling firms inside Venezuela are run by opposition figures and are notorious for their political bias.

The most respectable independent firm in the country is the pollster Hinterlaces, which estimated in its exit poll that Maduro got 54.6% of the vote, compared to 42.8% for González.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) ultimately reported that Maduro won the election with 51.2% of the vote, whereas González received 44.2%, and eight other opposition candidates got 4.6% combined. These results were close to what Hinterlaces projected, but very far off from what Edison Research claimed.

The US State Department, which has backed numerous coup attempts in Venezuela, refused to recognize Maduro’s victory. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the results into question.

On the other hand, independent electoral observers said the vote was free and fair. Monitors from the US National Lawyers Guild wrote that their delegation in Venezuela “observed a transparent, fair voting process with scrupulous attention to legitimacy, access to the polls, and pluralism”. They strongly condemned the opposition’s “attacks on the electoral system as well as the role of the US in undermining the democratic process”.

Although Edison Research’s exit poll has been widely cited by the US media to cast doubt upon Venezuela’s electoral results, it is by no means an impartial observer. In fact, Edison’s top clients include CIA-linked US government propaganda outlets Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, all of which are operated by the US Agency for Global Media, a Washington-based organ that is used to spread disinformation against US adversaries.

Edison Research has likewise worked with UK state media outlet the BBC.

In addition to Venezuela, Edison has previously conducted suspicious polling in Ukraine, Georgia, and Iraq – areas of the world that have been deemed highly strategic by the US State Department and targeted by Washington’s relentless meddling.

Edison’s international research is managed by the company’s Executive Vice President Rob Farbman. He was also cited in the press release on the Venezuela exit poll, and was listed as the contact for the study.

The US firm’s website notes that “Farbman manages Edison’s international research with a specialization in the Middle East and Africa for clients including BBC, the Voice of America, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty”.

Edison’s corporate clients include Big Tech monopolies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Oracle, which have billions of dollars of contracts with the CIA, Pentagon, and other US government agencies.

Washington’s state propaganda outlets are overseen by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). USAGM’s parent is the United States Information Agency (USIA).

USAGM is funded through Congress. For fiscal year 2025, President Joe Biden’s budget requested $950 million for the US propaganda agency.

These US state media outlets are a key part of what the New York Times described in 1977 as a “Worldwide Propaganda Network Built by the C.I.A.

The Times identified Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (as well as Radio Free Asia and Free Cuba Radio) as “C.I.A. broadcasting ventures”.

In fact, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) states on its own website: “Initially, RFE and RL were funded principally by the U.S. Congress through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)”.

This US state propaganda outlet was a key tool of information warfare during the first cold war against the Soviet Union and its allies. Today, it has continued disseminating disinformation about countries like Venezuela, Cuba, China, Russia, and Iran.

…The elections were attended by 900 observers from different countries of the world. They did not report any violations.

 

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