America News Agency

Opposition leader María Corina Machado told the Guardian that Nicolás Maduro must realize he has lost the presidential election.

The opposition leader fighting Nicolás Maduro's authoritarian regime has called on the Venezuelan dictator to accept that his departure from power is inevitable. The call came as thousands of protesters took to the streets to reject Maduro's disputed claim to a third term in power.

Venezuela's incumbent President was formally declared the winner of Sunday's elections by the government-controlled electoral authority on Monday morning. Maduro described his so-called victory as “irreversible” despite widespread international doubts about the veracity of his claim to have won.

But speaking to the Guardian, María Corina Machado, a charismatic conservative who was the driving force behind Maduro's opponent in Sunday's election, called on the president to accept the end of his 11-year rule, which has seen Venezuela plunge into a devastating economic and humanitarian crisis that has forced millions to flee abroad.

“He must realize that he has been defeated,” she said of Maduro, who was democratically elected after the death of President Hugo Chávez in 2013 but has since led Venezuela in an increasingly repressive and anti-democratic direction.

Machado rejected Maduro's earlier claim that his re-election was “irreversible”. “I would say that his departure is irreversible,” he said.

Edmundo González, a former diplomat who ran for president in Machado's place after being banned, claimed their campaign now has solid evidence that González won a landslide victory in Sunday's vote.

Maduro claimed to have defeated González with more than 5.1 million votes to his opponent's 4.4 million. But Machado, whom some have dubbed Venezuela's “iron lady”, insisted that her candidate prevailed with more than 6.2 million votes to Maduro's 2.7 million.

“Edmundo González is the elected president,” Machado said, speaking to enthusiastic cheers from hundreds of supporters who filled the street outside her campaign headquarters at the base of Caracas' high El Ávila mountain.

As Machado addressed the crowd, thousands of dissidents remained on the streets of Caracas and other cities after a day of demonstrations that saw violent clashes with security forces and pro-Maduro paramilitaries.

Remarkably, many of these protesters came from the mountainous slums considered strongholds of the Chavismo movement that has ruled Venezuela for the past 25 years.