- Both the Venezuelan government and the opposition claim to have won the elections.
- The opposition wins 73% of the votes in the presidential elections.
- Protesters gathered in towns and cities across Venezuela.
Protests by ruling party and opposition supporters are expected in Venezuela on Tuesday in the wake of President Nicolas Maduro's disputed election victory, with the opposition saying vote counts show its candidate won easily.
Electoral authorities said Monday that Maduro had won a third term with 51 percent of the vote, extending a quarter-century of socialist rule.
But the opposition said 73% of the votes it had access to showed opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had won an unassailable victory, obtaining more than twice as many votes as Maduro.
“My dear Venezuelans, tomorrow we will meet together; as a family, organized, demonstrating our determination to make every vote count and defend the truth,” opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said in a post on X on Monday night, calling on her supporters to march on Tuesday.
Jorge Rodriguez, a ruling party lawmaker and Maduro's campaign manager, urged supporters to take part in marches to the Miraflores presidential palace to support the government.
While Gonzalez warned against violence, Rodriguez accused the opposition of fueling violence.
Maduro said Monday night that his government “knows how to confront this situation and defeat the violent ones,” although he also said he supported peace.
Maduro, a 61-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister, took office after President Hugo Chavez's death in 2013 and his 2018 re-election is widely viewed as fraudulent by the United States and others, who call him a dictator.
Many Venezuelan voters despaired at the news of a new six-year term for Maduro, who has presided over an economic collapse, the migration of about a third of the population and a sharp deterioration in diplomatic relations, capped by sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and others that have crippled an already struggling oil industry.
Governments in Washington and around the world have called for a full recount of the vote, while 12 member countries of the Organization of American States are due to meet to discuss the election on Wednesday.
Opposition-held ballots showed a total of 2.75 million votes for Maduro and 6.27 million for his rival, former diplomat Gonzalez, Machado said.
The figures were markedly different from the 5.15 million votes the electoral authority said Maduro had obtained, compared with Gonzalez's 4.45 million.
Clashes between protesters and security forces broke out across the country on Monday, with tear gas being used to disperse crowds and at least two people being killed.
In Coro, capital of Falcón state, protesters toppled a statue of Maduro's late mentor, Hugo Chávez.
The Venezuelan Conflict Observatory, an advocacy group, reported more than 180 protests in 20 of the country's 23 states in a post on X.
“There have been numerous reports of acts of repression and violence by paramilitary groups and security forces,” he said.
