Maduro's electoral council declares him winner of Venezuelan election [View all]

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s electoral council declared the authoritarian socialist the winner of Venezuela’s election Sunday despite independent exit polling that suggested opposition candidate Edmundo González had captured twice as many votes.

The opposition, which sent thousands of ordinary citizens to monitor voting centers across the country Sunday, was expected to challenge the result.

The electoral council said Maduro won with 51 percent of the vote to González’s 44 percent.

The opposition had seen the vote as its best chance in more than a decade to unseat the strongman, whom many here blame for this oil-rich country’s economic collapse and the exodus of millions of citizens, hundreds of thousands of them to the United States.

https://wapo.st/4db8nSq

Donny Dipshit is taking notes.