WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Venezuela's election authorities have declared President Nicolas Maduro as the winner in the presidential election.
The Opposition also claimed victory in the election, held on Sunday.
With 80 percent of votes counted, Maduro won more than 51 percent, the National Electoral Council (CNE) said in a statement.
But Opposition leader María Corina Machado said at a news conference that CNE's announcement is fraudulent and vowed to challenge it.
He told reporters that the Democratic Unitary Platform candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia has won 70 percent of the vote, and a lead of 40 percentage points over Maduro.
During campaign, voters expressed their wish for a change in the nation's political leadership.
The Latin American country has plunged into economic crisis under two dictatorial Presidents - Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro - in the past 25 years in which the socialist PSUV party has been in power.
Maduro won a landslide victory in the 2018 election, which was widely condemned as unfair and biased. The U.S. Government imposed sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector.
The sanctions were eased after the Maduro government and the opposition reached a consensus last year to hold presidential elections in 2024, monitored by international observers.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed serious concerns over the election result. It does not reflect 'the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people,'
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