Former lawmaker María Corina Machado declared victory overnight in the Venezuelan opposition’s presidential primary, after she tallied a massive proportion of votes with the count just over a quarter finished.
With just over 26 percent of ballots counted around midnight on Sunday, Ms. Machado, and industrial engineer with a master’s degree in finance, took a decisive lead, commanding 93 percent of the vote.
“Today, very powerful forces have been unleashed,” she told her supporters in the capital, Caracas. “Today I received a mandate and I accept with Venezuelans the commitment of making that mandate matter.”
The count was expected to continue on Monday, but was delayed by a server blockage that the National Primary Commission blamed on internet censorship. It is unclear when the next results update would be given.
Participation in the vote, which was organized without government assistance, was more than double what had been expected in some states—despite the relocation of polling places, long lines, and the lack of gasoline and public transport in many areas.
The prospective runner-up in the primary, former lawmaker Carlos Prosperi, barely scored 4.75 percent of the vote.
It remains as yet unclear whether Ms. Machado—a free-market advocate who has pledged to privatize state oil company PDVSA if elected president—will be allowed to participate in the general election, as she currently remains barred from public office over her support of the international sanctions on incumbent President Maduro’s socialist regime.
The opposition and government last week signed an election deal allowing each side to choose its candidate according to its own internal rules, but the agreement did not include retracting any existing disqualifications—such as Ms. Machado’s.
The United States, which broadly eased sanctions on Venezuelan oil, gas, and bonds in response to the deal, has said the Venezuelan regime has until the end of November to begin rescinding the bans against the opposition and to start releasing political prisoners and “wrongfully detained” Americans.
Though five people were released, the Maduro government said last week that those with disqualifications cannot run in the 2024 contest.
The opposition, which maintains that the disqualifications are illegal, has been reticent about what it would do if Ms. Machado would win the primary but were unable to compete in 2024.
Ms. Machado has said she could pressure the electoral authorities to let her register, while others have argued that a substitute will be necessary.
Mr. Maduro, the long-time protégé of former President Hugo Chávez, has been in power since 2013. Sanctions over allegations of corruption and human rights abuses were put in place following the repression of the 2014 Venezuelan protests over the collapsed economy, along with the arrest of political opponents in 2017 and 2018.
Mr. Maduro is widely expected to seek a third six-year term, although an official announcement has yet to be made.
Reuters contributed to this article.
