Caracas, May 21 (RHC)-- Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro comfortably won re-election on Sunday. With 92.6 percent of the votes counted, Maduro had 5.8 million votes, while his closest rival, former governor Henri Falcón, obtained 1.8 million votes, said the president of the National Election Authority, Tibisay Lucena.
The president thanked the Venezuelan people for their support and called for a permanent dialogue to make way for reconciliation with all sectors of the country. Speaking at a victory rally at the Miraflores Palace, the Venezuelan president reiterated that dialogue is what the South American nation needs. "It has been a heroic, beautiful, popular victory forged in the struggle," said Maduro.
During his speech, he congratulated the National Electoral Council and celebrated the participation of international observers during Sunday's election.
The president committed himself to dedicate all his efforts to the economic recovery and to advance the socioeconomic development of the nation.
Re-elected with 67.7 percent of the vote, President Maduro called on foreign sectors to stop their aggression against Venezuela and said that he will ask the Electoral Authority for an audit of 100 percent of the votes, to be supervised by international observers.
In total, 8.6 million Venezuelans went to the polls, out of an electoral registry of 20.5 million people.
