President Nicolas Maduro hailed a "new dawn" in Venezuela as he celebrated his now total grip on power following a predictable triumph in polls boycotted by the opposition and slammed as a farce by international powers.
Victory for Mr Maduro's ruling Socialist Party in Sunday's legislative elections gave him control of an expanded 227-seat National Assembly, the only branch of government not in his hands.
"Today Venezuela wakes up with a new dawn of peace, joy, unity and strengthening of democratic institutions," Mr Maduro said on Twitter.
Mr Maduro and his left-wing allies had 67.7 per cent of the vote with over 80 per cent of ballots counted, while the opposition bloc which broke the boycott had 18 per cent, the National Electoral Council said.
Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaido during a press conference in Plaza Los Palos Grandes. Source: Getty Images South America
Most Venezuelans turned their back on the polls however, with turnout just 31 per cent.
Mr Maduro's victory nonetheless further weakens US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, who led the boycott after calling the vote "a fraud".
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would continue to recognise Mr Guaido "and the legitimate National Assembly".
"The international community cannot allow Mr Maduro, who is in power illegitimately because he stole the 2018 election, to gain from stealing a second election," Mr Pompeo said in a statement.
He described the election as a "farce" and a bid to install a "complicit, puppet National Assembly, beholden only to Mr Maduro."
Britain called the elections "deeply flawed" and said it continued to recognise Mr Guaido as Assembly speaker as well as Venezuela's interim president.
Caracas ally Russia however hailed the elections as more "transparent than in some countries which usually present themselves as an 'example of democracy'."
Canada and the Organisation of American States also rejected the result, while the European Union said the vote showed "a lack of respect for political pluralism."
Washington, Mr Guaido's main ally, is leading pressure to oust Mr Maduro with economic sanctions, including an oil embargo in force since April 2019.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro talks to journalist covering his vote in elections. Source: AP
Mr Maduro said he would call on US President-elect Joe Biden to lift the sanctions.
The opposition had controlled the National Assembly since 2015.
Mr Maduro sidelined the body in 2017 by creating an all-powerful Constituent Assembly stacked with his supporters. The Supreme Court meanwhile declared legislation passed by the National Assembly null and void.
Crippling crisis
The election came with the country in a deep political and economic crisis - suffocated by runaway inflation, paralysed in endless queues for petrol, lacking water and gas supplies, and afflicted by power cuts.
Since November 2019, inflation has reached 4,000 per cent.
Mr Maduro, a former bus driver who became president on the death of his mentor Hugo Chavez in 2013, was re-elected in 2018 in fraud-tainted polls - also boycotted by opposition parties - a victory that much of the international community branded illegitimate.
The United States, the European Union and many Latin American countries have long blamed Venezuela's crippling economic crisis on Mr Maduro's repression and misrule.
They backed Mr Guaido when the National Assembly speaker proclaimed himself interim president in January of last year.
Mr Guaido, 37, called on voters to stay at home on grounds that "free and fair" conditions for holding elections do not exist.
US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido called the vote "a fraud". Source: AAP
Instead he and his allies opened a week-long plebiscite on Monday, seeking public support to prolong the current National Assembly's mandate until "free, verifiable and transparent" elections can be held.
The referendum-style "popular consultation," using the web and mobile phone apps, calls for the end of Mr Maduro's "usurpation" of the presidency.
"It's the chance to transform this rejection ...into strength, into mobilisation," he told a press conference on Monday, hailing an "higher than expected" turnout for the virtual vote, though he declined to give figures.
On Saturday, supporters can vote in-person at polling booths in Venezuela.
Non-binding results
US tech firm Voatz, which has used the technology in polls in West Virginia, Colorado and Utah, is using blockchain technology to secure the online poll.
However, the results will not be binding, as Mr Maduro exercises control of the country's institutions, including the Supreme Court, the electoral authority and the powerful military.
Some analysts believe Mr Guaido has backed himself into a corner by boycotting the official election, and in doing so risked losing the support of his international backers.
"Mr Guaido will lose his formal legitimacy as president of the National Assembly in January, when Mr Maduro will consolidate total power," Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP.
