Maduro: a vision lives on

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Nicolas Maduro declared president-elect of Venezuela
Nicolas Maduro declared president-elect of Venezuela

As Nicolás Maduro held up an official certificate from the National Electoral Council marking him as the new Venezuelan President-elect on Tuesday, almost half of the nation’s voters remained sharply opposed to the leader, who won by a razor-thin margin in Sunday’s election and has vowed to carry on the legacy of his late predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

Maduro supporters in Caracas

Crowds gathered in Caracas on Sunday to support Maduro, who won the election by one of the thinnest margins in the nation’s history.

However, controversy over the election results seems unlikely to die down in the near future as supporters of Maduro and his opponent, Henrique Capriles, debate the close numbers. Official results claim that Maduro won 50.8 percent of votes to Capriles’ 49 percent, easily the closest election the nation has faced in decades.

Capriles continues to repeat accusations that his team found multiple instances of fraud, intimidation and other illegal voting tactics during the election, and supporters have led protests throughout the nation, some of which became heated, causing at least four deaths according to Venezuela’s AVN news network.

The closeness of the vote comes as something of a surprise to many analysts, who had predicted a comfortable margin of victory for Maduro in the weeks leading up to the election. The President-elect appeared open to allowing a recount on Monday, and the Obama administration suggested that the circumstances merited an audit of the election, while the Organization of American States offered to provide support and oversight if such a process were to be carried out. Nonetheless, the actions of the Venezuelan Electoral Council on Tuesday make a formal recount unlikely.

Maduro’s election suggests a continuation of so-called Chavista policies, a blend of socialism and personality-driven populism that kept the nation’s charismatic former president in power for more than 20 years.

While political differences have historically caused tension between Venezuela and neighboring Colombia, some analysts suggest that Maduro’s presence could have a positive impact on Colombia’s peace process with the FARC. Chávez had openly supported the ideology of the guerrilla group, which ostensibly advocates agrarian reform, among a handful of other leftist goals. Some experts on the FARC negotiations expressed concern prior to the election that a Capriles administration might have disrupted the process.

Barring the unlikely possibility that controversy surrounding the election delays or prevents his inauguration, President-elect Maduro looks ahead to a six-year term marked by economic uncertainty and challenging domestic issues such as high rates of violent crime in many regions of the country. Furthermore, the future President faces the unenviable challenge of ruling with a thin electoral mandate and filling the shoes of one of the world’s largest political personalities.

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