On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, Colombian President, Gustavo Petro joined other foreign leaders in urging for the release of detailed vote counts from the recent Venezuelan presidential election.
Venezuela has been rocked by days of mass protests after President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of a disputed election.
The National Electoral Council, which is loyal to the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, is yet to release any printed results from polling centers as it did in past elections.
Meanwhile, Maduro’s main challenger, Edmundo Gonzalez, and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, claim that they had secured more than two-thirds of the tally sheets that each electronic voting machine printed after polls closed.
They said that the release of the data on those tallies would prove that Maduro lost the election.
In a post on social media site X, Petro stated, “The serious doubts that have arisen around the Venezuelan electoral process can lead its people to a deep violent polarization with serious consequences of permanent division.”
“I invite the Venezuelan government to allow the elections to end in peace, allowing a transparent vote count, with the counting of votes, and with the supervision of all the political forces of its country and professional international supervision.”
Gustavo Petro
The Colombian President noted that such a process would appease protesters “and stop the violence that leads to death.”
He also said Maduro, who came to power in 2013 after the death of his mentor Hugo Chavez, held a “great responsibility” amid the turmoil “to honour Chavez’s spirit and to allow the Venezuelan people to return to tranquility while the elections conclude peacefully and the transparent result, whatever it may be, is accepted.”
Moreover, Petro proposed that Maduro’s government and the opposition reach an agreement “that allows for the maximum respect of the (political) force that has lost the elections.”
The agreement, he said, could be submitted to the United Nations Security Council.
Meanwhile, Carmen Beatriz Fernandez, CEO of the Datastrategia firm, said “there is still a small chance” that Maduro’s government could consent to negotiations to hash out a transition of power.
However, she added that given that the government has not shared the tallies, it “seems to be taking the worst path for themselves and for the country.”
Also on Wednesday, Foreign Ministers of G7 countries urged the Venezuelan authorities to publish “detailed electoral results in full transparency.”
“And we ask electoral representatives to immediately share all information with the opposition and independent observers,” they said in a statement.
Carter Center Unable To Verify Venezuela’s Electoral Results
The Carter Center, an independent U.S.-based institution that evaluates elections, said that it was unable to verify the results of Venezuela’s presidential election, blaming authorities for a “complete lack of transparency” in declaring Maduro the winner without providing any individual polling tallies.
The group was authorized earlier this year by Venezuela’s electoral authorities to send experts to observe the election. It had 17 experts spread out in four cities during the election.
“The electoral authority’s failure to announce disaggregated results by polling station constitutes a serious breach of electoral principles,” the Carter Center said, adding that the election did not meet international standards and “cannot be considered democratic.”
The group listed a range of problems with the electoral process, including short voter registration deadlines, unequal campaign conditions, restrictions on the opposition, and what it said was a “clear bias” on the part of the National Electoral Council in favour of Maduro.
“In the limited number of polling centers they visited, Carter Center observer teams noted the desire of the Venezuelan people to participate in a democratic election process, as demonstrated through their active participation as polling staff, party witnesses, and citizen observers.
“However, their efforts were undermined by the CNE’s complete lack of transparency in announcing the results.”
The Carter Center
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