Nicolas Maduro must respect the people's will and relinquish power. This is what Venezuela's opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia says, who believes he has won against Maduro in the disputed election on July 28.
"I hereby appeal to Nicolas Maduro: Respect the Venezuelan people's will, you are playing with the lives of several million compatriots!", says Gonzalez Urrutia in a video clip published on social media.
The country's election commission, CNE, declared the sitting president Maduro the winner of the election on July 28. According to CNE, which is loyal to Maduro, he received 52 percent of the votes – but no detailed voting data has been presented since then to prove it.
The opposition, on the other hand, claims that results from polling stations show that 74-year-old Gonzalez Urrutia defeated Maduro by a wide margin.
Maduro's proclaimed victory has been questioned by the opposition as well as the USA, EU, and several Latin American countries. The situation in the country has been tumultuous since the election, with violent protests that have claimed 25 lives.