Venezuelans Continue Waiting for Proof of Voting Results
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA TIMES – As the voting results remain a mystery for the July 28th presidential elections in Venezuela, Tuesday may be crucial to avoid a large escalation of protests and violence that began on Monday. As opposition protestors are spontaneously taking to the streets, the government has called on its supporters to come out today for a show of strength. Maduro promises to carry out mass arrests of those opposed to his “victory”.
President Maduro claims he won the vote with 51.2% of the vote to 44.2% to the main opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. However, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, and Gonzalez say they won the election with over 70% of the vote. The discrepancy couldn’t be greater.
What Venezuelans and governments around the world are waiting for is the proof, the vote tabulation records issued at each polling place which Maduro said Monday will appear in the coming days, and that his victory is assured. He continues to say the Electoral Council website continues to be hacked by his enemies, supposedly to keep the true results from being published.
Numerous Latin American governments, both of former ideological allies and detractors of Maduro demand the proof of his supposed victory. That request led Maduro to expel all embassy personnel from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay. He has also banned flights to and from Panama and the Dominican Republic.
Brazil, Mexico and Colombia are also calling on the government’s Electoral Council to release all voting records by precinct.
At the same time, Russia, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Iran, are supporting Maduro’s victory and calling on his opponents to accept the preliminary results issued by the National Electoral Council, which Maduro controls and thus far refuses to document the figures presented to deem the president reelected.
Machado says those voter tabulation sheets in the Gonzalez’s campaign’s possession gathered by poll watchers tell a totally different story and will be published soon on a webpage for all to see.
The only accredited international election observer organization, the Carter Center, also called on Monday for the Electoral Council to “immediately” publish the detailed results by polling places. This, “indispensable” data would make it possible to contrast the records in the possession of the opposition. The Carter Center said before the voting closed on Sunday that they would be holding a press conference on Tuesday. No time has been mentioned for that initial evaluation of the voting process.