VENEZUELAN officials declared socialist leader Nicolas Maduro the winner of Sunday’s presidential election, while his leading challenger questioned the legitimacy of a vote marred by irregularities and called for a new ballot to prevent a brewing social crisis from exploding.

The National Election Council announced that with almost 93 percent of polling stations reporting, Maduro won nearly 68 percent of the votes, beating nearest challenger Henri Falcon by more than 40 points.

The victory is likely to heighten international pressure on Maduro, as voter turnout was the lowest in a presidential race since the start of Venezuela’s leftist revolution two decades ago. Even as voting was taking place Sunday, a senior U.S. State Department official warned that the U.S. might press ahead on threats of imposing crippling oil sanctions on the nation that sits atop the world’s largest crude reserves.

The election “without any doubt lacks legitimacy and we categorically refuse to recognize this process,” Falcon told supporters before the results were announced.

Falcon was joined in his call for a new election by third-place finisher Javier Bertucci, who got around 11 percent of the vote. Bertucci, a TV evangelist, stopped short of challenging the results, saying what he called a mistaken opposition boycott that led to the lowest voter turnout in two decades of socialist rule also boosted Maduro.

Maduro immediately called for dialogue with his presidential opponents.

“The electoral processes have ended for now,” he said, saying that he wanted to spend the next two years before scheduled congressional elections to focus on repairing the economy.

He also slammed Falcon, who like him was an acolyte of the late President Hugo Chavez. Maduro said he had never seen a candidate dispute results even before they were announced.

Both of Maduro’s opponents accused electoral authorities of turning a blind eye to a slew of blatant violations, including the establishment of red tents just steps away from voting centers where ruling party activists scanned on cellphones government-issued “Fatherland Cards.”

Under Venezuela’s electoral law, any political activity must take place at least 200 meters from voting centers. National Electoral Council president Tibisay Lucena acknowledged a handful of complaints, but insisted they were minor compared to past elections.

(SD-Agencies)