Venezuela's opposition, which sees the election as its best chance in years to topple the authoritarian socialists, has demanded that Maduro hand over not only the numbers posted on a government webpage, but also scanned prints of all voting records, signed and dated by poll workers and opposition observers – more than 30,000 documents.
“The results are undeniable,” Gonzalez said late Sunday. “The country has chosen peaceful change.”
“We have serious concerns that the announced election results do not reflect the will and vote of the Venezuelan people,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday. He called on election authorities to release a “detailed tally” of the vote. “The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly,” he said.
The Atlanta-based Carter Center, which sent a team of technology observers to monitor Sunday's vote, called on election officials to immediately release the presidential election results at the polling place level.
Maduro has ruled Venezuela since the death of his mentor Hugo Chavez, the socialist state's founder, in 2013. Many blame him for the oil-rich country's economic collapse and the exodus of millions of its citizens, including hundreds of thousands who have fled to the United States.
Some Latin American countries, including Colombia and Brazil, which have ties to Maduro, expressed skepticism about the results, along with Spain, Italy and other European countries. Brazil said it was waiting for polling station-level voting data to be released.
Countries that congratulated President Maduro include Russia, China, Iran and Cuba.
Opposition leaders said they had organised and trained thousands of ordinary citizens to monitor the vote in preparation for possible voter fraud, but that records from around 40 percent of polling stations across the country proved their victory.
According to their sources, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said it was “impossible” for Maduro to win.
“We won, and the whole world knows it,” she told reporters early Monday.
In a memo, the opposition camp said the vote was “fraudulent” and that the “burden of proof” lay with the government.
“Months will pass and they will not be able to deliver it to us. That is what we must achieve and what we and the international community demand,” the memo's authors wrote.
Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek William Saab said on Monday that the election data transmission system had come under an attempted “attack” and accused opposition leaders Lester Toledo and Leopoldo Lopez of carrying out the attack in order to “manipulate the data.” He also accused Machado of involvement, without providing evidence.
“What is happening in our country is a huge social movement that they cannot stop,” said Machado, Venezuela's most popular politician. “We are a civil peace movement and we will continue to work until the truth prevails. And the truth will prevail.”
As the election drew near, Maduro's government banned Machado from running, arrested campaign workers and denied opposition members access to state media. There were reports of delays, violence and blocked access to some polling stations during Sunday's vote.
Maduro's victory threatens to further isolate him and Venezuela on the world stage after he claimed re-election in 2018 in an election marred by allegations of fraud, sparking mass protests at home and condemnation abroad.
The United States and other countries eventually declared President Maduro illegitimate and recognized then-National Assembly President Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader.
Maduro said in a statement early Monday, without providing any evidence: that The electoral commission was hacked by an unnamed country, delaying the release of the full election results. “The devil and the evil spirits did not want the totals to be counted,” President Maduro said.
Latin American leaders from across the political spectrum questioned the results.
Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo called for an independent verification and audit of the vote tally “as soon as possible.”
Center-left President Gabriel Boric called the official results “hard to believe” and demanded that independent international monitors be allowed to see the full results. “Chile will not accept results that cannot be verified,” he wrote on Twitter early Monday.
Celso Amorim, a foreign policy adviser to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said he was waiting for the electoral commission to provide records to back up its conclusions and hoped to reach a “fact-based assessment” of the vote in Caracas.
“We do not support any claims of fraud,” Amorim said in a statement. “The situation is complex and we want to support the normalization of Venezuela's political process.”
Meanwhile, from a political standpoint, Argentine President Javier Mirey also said he would not accept the “fraud.” “The Venezuelan people have chosen to end the communist dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro,” he wrote on Twitter, calling on the Venezuelan military to “protect democracy and the will of the people.”
Peruvian Foreign Minister Javier Gonzalez Olaechea accused the Maduro regime of “deceptive intent” and recalled his country's ambassador to Venezuela for consultations. “Peru will not tolerate the violation of the popular will of the Venezuelan people,” he said on Twitter.
Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay also called for a transparent vote count with independent observers.
Meanwhile, Maduro's allies – Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Bolivia and Honduras – congratulated the president.
The Russian ambassador to Caracas called the victory “believable,” and President Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations: “Remember, on Russian soil you are always a welcome guest,” the ambassador told Maduro.
China's Foreign Ministry congratulated Maduro and Venezuela on the “successful” elections. “China and Venezuela are good friends and mutually supportive partners,” Chinese state media quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian as saying at a news conference.
According to the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Raul Castro, brother of the late Fidel Castro and former prime minister of the communist island nation of Cuba, called President Maduro to congratulate him.
Sands reported from London. Christian Sheppard in Taipei, Taiwan, and Natalia Abakumova in Riga, Latvia contributed to this report.
