Nicolás Maduro won Venezuela's 2024 election
| Nicolás Maduro won Venezuela's 2024 election | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "President Nicolás Maduro won Venezuela's July 28, 2024, presidential election with about 51 percent of the vote, as certified by the National Electoral Council and the Supreme Court." | |
| Domain | Politics & Elections |
| Tactic | Fabrication Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2024 |
| Origin | Announcement by Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) shortly after midnight on July 29, 2024, later endorsed by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-27 |
| Further reading: books on Politics & Elections | |
The claim that Nicolás Maduro won Venezuela's 2024 election rests on an announcement by Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE), which is controlled by allies of the government. The council declared Maduro the winner but never published the detailed, polling-station-level results required by Venezuelan law. The opposition collected copies of more than 80 percent of the official tally sheets printed by voting machines at polling stations, which showed its candidate, Edmundo González, winning by a wide margin. Independent analyses of those sheets, and assessments by international observers, concluded that the official result was not credible. The government nonetheless kept power, and González went into exile.
The claim
Shortly after midnight on July 29, 2024, the CNE announced that Maduro had won about 51 percent of the vote to about 44 percent for González, with most votes counted. It later reaffirmed the result without releasing breakdowns by polling station. In August the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, also aligned with the government, certified Maduro's victory after a review that was not independently verifiable.
Background
Maduro had governed since 2013 amid economic collapse, hyperinflation and the emigration of millions of Venezuelans. The opposition's leading candidate, María Corina Machado, was barred from running, and González, a retired diplomat, stood in her place. Venezuela's voting machines print tally sheets, known as actas, at each polling station after polls close, and party witnesses are entitled to copies.
What the evidence shows
- Missing results. The CNE did not publish the polling-station results it had published in previous elections. It attributed delays to a cyberattack, a claim for which no evidence was provided.
- Opposition tally sheets. The opposition said it had collected more than 80 percent of the actas and posted scans online. They showed González with roughly two-thirds of the vote. Analyses by news organizations, including the Associated Press, and by independent researchers found the sheets broadly authentic and consistent with a González victory.
- International observers. The Carter Center, one of the few independent observers invited, said the election did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and could not be considered democratic. A UN panel of electoral experts said the CNE's management of the results lacked basic transparency and integrity measures. The United States, the European Union and many Latin American governments declined to recognize Maduro's claimed victory; some, including the United States, recognized González as the winner.
- Repression. After the election, protests were met with mass arrests; human rights groups reported more than 2,000 detentions and multiple deaths. An arrest warrant was issued for González, who left for Spain in September 2024. Maduro was inaugurated for a new term in January 2025.
In October 2025 María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote democratic rights in Venezuela.
Why it persists
The official claim persists because state institutions, the electoral council and the courts endorsed it, and the government controls much of Venezuela's media. Authoritarian governments often maintain the forms of elections while controlling the bodies that count and certify votes, creating an appearance of legitimacy.
Lessons for readers
- A credible election result can be checked at the level of individual polling stations.
- Ask whether results were published in a way that allows independent verification.
- Certification by bodies controlled by the government is not independent confirmation.
- Observers' assessments and independent analyses of primary records carry weight.
- Claims of cyberattacks used to explain missing data deserve scrutiny.
See also
- The 2019 Bolivian election was rigged
- Brazil's 2026 presidential runoff was stolen from Flávio Bolsonaro
- The 2020 presidential election was stolen
Sources
- The Carter Center, statement on Venezuela's July 28, 2024, presidential election (July 30, 2024).
- United Nations Panel of Electoral Experts, interim report on the Venezuelan presidential election (August 2024).
- Associated Press, analysis of opposition-collected tally sheets, August 2024.
- Human Rights Watch, reporting on post-election repression in Venezuela (2024).
- Norwegian Nobel Committee, announcement of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.