The vote represents an existential moment for Chavismo, the socialist movement that swept to power in Venezuela in 1999. Founded by former President Hugo Chávez, Mr. Maduro’s mentor, the movement promised to lift millions out of poverty.
For a time, it did. But, over the course of a generation, the movement shattered the nation’s democracy, presided over an economic contraction unlike any seen outside of war and became the source of one of the largest migrant crises in the world.
“Maduro wins with 199% of the vote!”
With all seriousness, I hope this turns out like the Chilean 1988 referendum - with the margin of victory too large for the government to sweep under the rug.
Exit polling is showing quite a significant loss for Maduro according to another thread I saw a couple minutes ago. I think Maduro got 31% and the opposition over 60%. That would be hard to paper over.
He’s declared victory, of course. 2/3 of polling locations threw out the opposition observes.