Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro won a new six-year term on Sunday, the election board announced in what is being seen as a controversial vote.

According to the results announced by Tibisay Lucena, president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), President Maduro obtained 5.8 million votes while his main opponent, Henri Falcon, collected a total of 1.8 million votes.

The turnout was 46.01 percent and the projection was at 48 percent, a total of 8.6 million Venezuelans voted, the CNE reported.

Maduro, an unpopular political heir to the late leftist President Hugo Chavez, hailed his win as a victory against “imperialism,” but his main rival refused to recognise the result alleging irregularities.

The country’s main opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), had boycotted the election, while the two most popular opposition leaders, Henrique Capriles and Leopoldo Lopez, were barred from running in the vote.

Turnout in Sunday’s vote was low compared to the 2013 presidential elections, which had witnessed above 80 percent voting. Polling stations were opened beyond its closing time at 6 pm. Telesur, the state broadcaster, announced they would stay open “as long as there are people in line to cast their vote”.

“This was a historic day!.. the day of a beautiful victory,” Maduro said outside the presidential palace in Caracas on Sunday night.

“They underestimated me,” the 55-year-old leader told supporters, as fireworks went off and confetti was fired in the air.

“Never before has a presidential candidate taken 68 percent of the popular vote,” he said. “We are the force of history turned into a permanent popular victory.”

But his main rival, Falcon, called for a new vote, alleging the vote was marred by irregularities and lacked legitimacy. “We do not recognise this electoral process as valid,” he told local media. “There must be new elections in Venezuela.”

Reactions
Claudio Fermin, the campaign chief of Falcon’s party, said his team documented 900 cases of voting irregularities involving benefits being offered outside polling stations to those who backed the president.

“What we are witnessing is the abuse of power,” Falcon wrote. “It’s time to remove this cheating government,” he added.

The US, which has slapped sanctions on the Maduro government, called the elections a “sham”, adding that it would not recognise the results.

Posting on Twitter ahead of the vote, the US mission to the United Nations called the process an “insult to democracy”.

President of Chile, Sebastian Pinera, tweeted that his country “like the majority of democratic countries,” would not recognise the vote, “it does not represent the free and sovereign will of the people, he added.

Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica’s president denounced “electoral fraud in Venezuela” and called for the “retreat of ambassadors, and sanctions on members of the regime.”

However, back in Venezuela, thousands of Maduro supporters danced outside the Miraflores presidential palace in the capital, Caracas.

“Here at home the process was quiet, organised,” Rossana Melendez, an environmental manager and government supporter, told Al Jazeera.

“The result must be respected. I support Maduro’s mandate and it’s obviously my wish for this process to continue,” she added.

Hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, rising crime and broken water, power and transportation networks have sparked violent unrest in recent years and left Maduro with a 75 percent disapproval rating.

“[In the country] we have a large induced inflation … but despite these conditions, President Maduro obtained a considerable advantage,” Juan Romero, a writer and government supporter, told Al Jazeera.

“We expect presure from international actors, but this is the time for Venezuela to reflect and to focus in a great effort to restore peace and order. Venezuela also needs to prevent foreign countries from intervening in its affairs, and to avoid ending in a process very similar to what happened in Libya,” he said.

The Opposition
The opposition Democratic Unity coalition (MUD) said the elections were moved ahead to take advantage of the divisions within the coalition.

Most of the candidates who might have run against Maduro were barred from running, including Capriles and Lopez.

“For the opposition this was a disaster, the abstention was very high, they wasted a historic moment to defeat Maduro,” Saverio Vivas, an opposition leader, told Al Jazeera.

“Had the opposition made a small effort to overcome the egos that ended up dividing them, today the results would have been different,” he added.

And although it’s not clear for everybody what is coming next after this election, some members of the opposition say they will continue to fight.

“We will continue our fight. Politics is permanent and we will keep fighting in the General Assembly.. [we will respond from here] against this fraud,” Rachid Yasbek, a member of the MUD, told Al Jazeera.

[Source: Al Jazeera]