Venezuela's capital is eerily calm after vote in which Maduro and opposition both claimed victory

CARACAS, Venezuela -

An eerie calm enveloped Venezuela's capital early Monday, a day after the country's opposition and entrenched incumbent Nicolas Maduro both claimed victory in the presidential election, setting up a high-stakes standoff.

Several foreign governments, including the U.S. and European Union, held off recognizing the results of Sunday's election, as officials delayed the release of detailed vote tallies after proclaiming Maduro the winner with 51 per cent, to 44 per cent for retired diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez.

"Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened," said Gonzalez. While the opposition vowed it would defend its votes, Gonzalez and his allies asked supporters to remain calm for now and called on the government to avoid stoking conflict.

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Normally bustling western Caracas awoke as if it was a holiday, with several businesses shuttered, bus stops empty and traffic nonexistent. A few hours earlier, around midnight, a mix of anger, tears and loud pot banging greeted the announcement of results by the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council.

Eating a breakfast on a bench next to an unopened business, 28-year-old Deyvid Cadenas said he felt cheated.

"The majority voted for the opposition," said Cadenas, who cast a ballot in a presidential election for the first time Sunday. "I don't believe yesterday's results."

The opposition, after failing to oust Maduro during three rounds of demonstrations since 2014, put its faith in the ballot box. The elections were among the most peaceful in recent memory, reflecting the hopes of many that that it could avoid bloodshed and end 25 years of single-party rule.

Venezuela sits atop the world's largest oil reserves and once boasted Latin America's most advanced economy. But after Maduro took the helm it entered into a free fall marked by plummeting oil prices, widespread shortages of basic goods and 130,000 per cent hyperinflation. U.S. oil sanctions seeking to force Maduro from power after his 2018 reelection -- which dozens of countries condemned as illegitimate -- only accelerated an exodus of some 7.7 million Venezuelans have fled their crisis-stricken nation.

The opposition's call for calm is partly a reflection of protest fatigue among voters, who polls show are in no rush to upend their lives by taking to the streets as they have previously.

Voters lined up before dawn to cast ballots Sunday, boosting the opposition's hopes it was about to break Maduro's grip on power.

The official results came as a shock to many who had celebrated, online and outside a few voting centers, what they believed was a landslide victory for Gonzalez.

"I'm so happy," said Merling Fernandez, a 31-year-old bank employee, as a representative for the opposition campaign walked out of one voting center in a working class neighborhood of Caracas to announce results showing Gonzalez more than doubled Maduro's vote count. Dozens standing nearby erupted in an impromptu rendition of the national anthem.

"This is the path toward a new Venezuela," added Fernandez, holding back tears. "We are all tired of this yoke."

Gabriel Boric, the leftist leader of Chile, called the results "difficult to believe," while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had "serious concerns" that they didn't reflect the voting -- or the will of the people.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said the margin of Gonzalez's victory was "overwhelming," based on voting tallies the campaign received from representatives stationed at about 40 per cent of ballot boxes.

Authorities delayed releasing the results from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, promising only to do so in the "coming hours," hampering attempts to verify the results.

Gonzalez was the unlikeliest of opposition standard bearers. The 74-year-old was unknown until he was tapped in April as a last-minute stand in for opposition powerhouse Machado, who was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years.

The delay in announcing a winner -- which came six hours after polls were supposed to close -- indicated a deep debate inside the government about how to proceed after Maduro's opponents came out early in the evening all but claiming victory.

After finally claiming to have won, Maduro accused unidentified foreign enemies of trying to hack the voting system.

"This is not the first time that they have tried to violate the peace of the republic," he said to a few hundred supporters at the presidential palace. He provided no evidence to back the claim but promised "justice" for those who try to stir violence in Venezuela.

Authorities set Sunday's election to coincide with what would have been the 70th birthday of former President Hugo Chavez, the revered leftist firebrand who died of cancer in 2013, leaving his Bolivarian revolution in the hands of Maduro. But Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela are more unpopular than ever among many voters who blame his policies for crushing wages, spurring hunger, crippling the oil industry and separating families due to migration.

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The president's pitch this election was one of economic security, which he tried to sell with stories of entrepreneurship and references to a stable currency exchange and lower inflation rates. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the economy will grow 4 per cent this year -- one of the fastest in Latin America -- after having shrunk 71 per cent from 2012 to 2020.

But most Venezuelans have not seen any improvement in their quality of life. Many earn under US$200 a month, which means families struggle to afford essential items. Some work second and third jobs. A basket of basic staples -- sufficient to feed a family of four for a month -- costs an estimated US$385.

The opposition managed to line up behind a single candidate after years of intraparty divisions and election boycotts that torpedoed their ambitions to topple the ruling party.

Machado was blocked by the Maduro-controlled supreme court from running for any office for 15 years. A former lawmaker, she swept the opposition's October primary with over 90 per cent of the vote. After she was blocked from joining the presidential race, she chose a college professor as her substitute on the ballot, but the National Electoral Council also barred her from registering. That's when Gonzalez, a political newcomer, was chosen.

The opposition has tried to seize on the huge inequalities arising from the crisis, during which Venezuelans abandoned their country's currency, the bolivar, for the U.S. dollar.

Gonzalez and Machado focused much of their campaigning on Venezuela's vast hinterland, where the economic activity seen in Caracas in recent years didn't materialize. They promised a government that would create sufficient jobs to attract Venezuelans living abroad to return home and reunite with their families.

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Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.