Organized celebrations as Nicolas Maduro claims victory

As the election authorities, controlled by Nicolas Maduro, announced that he would win a third term in office, fireworks erupted in Caracas, Venezuela.

The city was tracked in a carefully selected manner, like many things in this election.

The opposition parties just said they won, not the president.

But you wouldn't know this by watching the news here.

Television screens up and down the country only show happy crowds, decked out in the Venezuelan flag, dancing and congratulating the president.

Nicolas Maduro still has loyal supporters, known as “Chavistas” after his mentor Hugo Chavez and the brand of socialism he created.

But their statistics are very contradictory, and this election result is far from over.

As the city returns to life this morning, the government is facing pressure from the international community and the opposition here to explain their numbers – after the opposition was far ahead in the polls earlier.

There are things that are not disputed. Something I witnessed as an observer on the ground.

There were long queues at the polling stations, but few people were allowed in at one time.

This led to suspicions of a deliberate delay, perhaps in the hope that some people would give up and go home.

When our BBC team arrived at one of the polling stations, the station operator picked up the phone saying the international media were there. 150 people were then allowed to enter suddenly.

There were polling stations that were not opened at all, which led to protests and clashes with the authorities.

There were allegations that some government employees, including police students, were being told how to vote.

It was true that the face of President Maduro was always glorified more than other polling stations even on the day of voting.

His face is up on almost every street in Caracas, his ruling party pays supporters – buses are brought to his rallies, free food parcels are given out.

Even before the allegations of obvious fraud the question was being asked: Is this competition fair?

Opposition representatives were barred from running, opposition supporters were arrested, many Venezuelans overseas struggled to register to vote and international election observers were not engaged.

All this was seen as an attempt to suppress the opposition vote. The opposition parties are so far ahead in the opinion polls that many analysts believe that these tactics are necessary as it would be difficult for the government to win without looking distant.

But since they have done that, the opposition party suspects some kind of fraud.

They said they were only able to obtain 30% of the “receipts” published in voting machines across the country, to check whether the results of the machines match those sent electronically to the electoral council.

They think this could mean more opportunities for electronic counts to be tampered with and say many of their viewers were not allowed to be counted.

The government denies any wrongdoing, and instead accuses “foreign governments” of “interventionist activity”.

So, what will happen next?

There are still many unknowns. The opposition parties said they will announce in the coming days how they plan to challenge the results.

They and the international community have asked for evidence of the numbers that the government has released, as granular as it is calculated.

It is difficult to see how President Maduro avoids these calls without serious consequences for the country.

In his victory speech, he mentioned the US sanctions that were imposed after the last election and were considered unfair.

They have hit the country's economy which is already in decline. Millions of Venezuelans have fled, and half of the country is impoverished.

How everyone else reacts will be key now.

The international community has long been divided on how to respond to Venezuela, with some governments privately admitting that sanctions “didn't work”, either by promoting regime change or forcing President Maduro to hold fair elections.

They are also used as excuses for President Maduro, and his followers, for the country's woes.

The future of Venezuela and whether it can rebuild is global news – mass migration has exacerbated the migration crisis at the US border, its large oil reserves remain idle, and it remains a friend of Russia, China, Cuba and Iran. in the West.

The opposition parties are not willing to back down without a fight.