Venezuela’s Falcon says won’t recognize Sunday’s vote

The CEC of Venezuela on Monday announced that incumbent President Nicholas Maduro won the election. Latin American leaders have collectively condemned the Venezuelan government for its authoritarian ways.

The Canadian government imposed targeted sanctions on 40 Venezuelan officials, including Maduro, in September 2017 for “anti-democratic behaviour” and “in response to the government of Venezuela’s deepening descent into dictatorship”.

Critics said the government was promising economic benefits to rush listless voters to increase the participation rate.

‘I think this constant aggression from the government of the Ku Klux Klan is losing credibility, ‘ Maduro said on Sunday, blaming U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for Venezuela’s mess. “Abstention”, said Delcy Rodriguez, head of the Maduro-created constituent assembly that rules supremely over all other government bodies. “It’s evident those who are in power can’t mobilize and don’t have the support they once enjoyed”.

“The process undoubtedly lacks legitimacy and as such we do not recognize it”, said Falcon, a 56-year-old former state governor.

A third presidential candidate, evangelical pastor Javier Bertucci, followed Falcon in slamming irregularities during Sunday’s vote and calling for a new election.

Many eligible voters boycotted Sunday’s polling, bringing turnout to a lackluster 46%, according to the country’s election board. In the four presidential elections between 1958 and 1973, turnout exceed 90%.

Venezuela, which is already struggling under hyper-inflation and food shortages, could be hit by more sanctions following Maduro’s expected victory, VOA News reported.

Venezuela’s opposition rallied thousands to the streets in protest of President Nicolas Maduro’s increasingly autocratic rule previous year but the movement has since fizzled.

“I am looking for rewards, everyone wants to win prizes”, said Maximino Ramos at another “red point” in Petare, just 50 meters from a polling center.

But he showed no sign of replaying Sunday’s vote.

He told cheering crowds outside the presidential palace in Caracas that “the revolution is here to stay!”.

“What comes next is even worse than before”, he said.

A woman wearing the red, yellow and blue colors of Venezuela’s flag scanned each card with her phone – a form of verifying that cardholders had done their patriotic duty of voting, presumably for President Nicolas Maduro. Constitutionality has triumphed (These were) elections that were constitutional, legitimate and legal”, he insisted, before claiming: “We have a President of the people!

In a separate statement, Pompeo said the United States “will take swift economic and diplomatic actions to support the restoration of their democracy”.

The main opposition coalition, which boycotted the election, has accused the government of using the electronic cards, a system set up under Maduro, as a means of social coercion.

“If you’re sick and the doctor gives you few days to live, you don’t lay in bed waiting to die”, she said. We’re in the final phase of a tragic cycle for our country. “Venezuela is very sick and we the people are the medicine”.