Venezuela’s dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro, has remained in power following a hotly contested election on Sunday, July 28. He had promised to win by any means necessary and that is exactly what he appears to have done.

Despite several pre-election polls pointing to an overwhelming opposition victory, Venezuela’s government-controlled national electoral council declared Maduro the winner with 51.2% of the vote – a result said to have been made after 80% of the votes had been counted. Edmundo González, the candidate behind whom most of the opposition had officially united, trailed behind with 44.2%.

The international community has expressed doubt about the result. Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, took to social media to say he finds the result “hard to believe”, and Peru has recalled its ambassador in Caracas citing a “violation of the popular will”. But Maduro is defiant, calling the result a “triumph of peace and stability”.

In a press conference held after the official declaration of the results, the popular opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, who had been banned from running in the election, said that a parallel count revealed González had come first. He had won 70% of the vote, she claimed, while Maduro won just 30%.

She declared González the elected president of Venezuela, adding: “We won and everybody knows it … We haven’t just defeated them politically and morally,........

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