Venezuela Election Won by Maduro Amid Widespread Disillusionment

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela giving a victory speech in Caracas on Sunday night. He made scant mention of the low turnout, telling a cheering crowd, “And here we are again, victorious!”CreditMeridith Kohut for The New York Times

President Nicolás Maduro won a second term as president of Venezuela, a country in the midst of a historic economic collapse marked by soaring prices, widespread hunger, rampant crime, a failing health system and a large-scale exodus of its citizens.

Electoral officials declared Mr. Maduro the victor Sunday night, in a contest that critics said was heavily rigged in his favor.

In the capital and around the country, the turnout was extremely low, with more than half of voters not casting ballots, reflecting both a call from many opposition leaders for a boycott of the vote and the disillusionment of longtime government supporters.

Voting centers in pro-government strongholds and opposition areas alike often had no lines — a significant change from previous presidential elections, and a sign that many Venezuelans repudiated the candidacies of both Mr. Maduro and the two opposition candidates.

Election officials said Mr. Maduro, the political heir of Hugo Chávez, the leftist firebrand who led this oil-rich country until his death in 2013, received 5.8 million votes, with more than 92 percent of voting centers reporting. That was nearly 68 percent of the votes cast.

His main rival, Henri Falcón, a former state governor who was once an acolyte of Mr. Chávez’s but broke with him to join the opposition, received 1.8 million votes. A third candidate, Javier Bertucci, a political novice and an evangelical minister, received 925,000. Mr. Maduro’s current term continues until the end of the year; his new term will last six years.

New York Times