Pro-Democracy Organization Denounces Venezuela’s Election
The only independent observer monitoring the polls in Venezuela said that Sunday’s vote for president did not meet international standards and was undemocratic, raising more questions about the legitimacy of the results.
The mission, led by the Carter Center, a pro-democracy organization, said late Tuesday that the election violated Venezuela’s own laws and the government’s failure to release a vote count was a “serious breach of electoral principles.’’
The group joined the United States and many other countries that have said Venezuela’s election was marred by irregularities. At least 16 people have been killed in protests that erupted after election officials declared the country’s autocratic leader, President Nicolás Maduro, the winner.
The condemnation by the Carter Center, which was the lone independent election monitor the government allowed into Venezuela ahead of the vote, came hours after opposition leaders announced updated election results showing Mr. Maduro received less than a third of votes cast.
Venezuelans went to the polls Sunday to choose between Mr. Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, and Edmundo González, a former diplomat who served as a stand-in for MarĂa Corina Machado, a more popular opposition leader who had been barred by the government from running.
Ms. Machado released data showing that with more than 81 percent of the machines counted, Mr. González received 67 percent of the vote, compared to 30 percent for Mr. Maduro. The opposition’s calculations came from voting machine tallies provided to election observers, she said.
The country’s election authority, which is run by an ally of Mr. Maduro, said that Mr. Maduro received 51 percent of the vote, and Mr. González 44 percent. But the elections council has yet to provide voting data, and critics say the body essentially expected that the nation would take its word that Mr. Maduro was re-elected to another six years in office.
The Carter Center, which is based in Atlanta and was founded by former President Jimmy Carter, has observed more than 100 elections around the world and sent a delegation of 17 people to Venezuela. They met with the elections council, the candidates, political parties, the armed forces and other interested groups.
The organization waited until its team had flown out of the country before making any public declarations.
The Venezuelan election “cannot be considered democratic,” the Carter Center said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Carter Center cannot verify or corroborate the results of the election declared by the National Electoral Council (CNE), and the electoral authority’s failure to announce disaggregated results by polling station constitutes a serious breach of electoral principles.”
The Carter Center’s statement is noteworthy because in the past Mr. Maduro has often cited the number of observers present to prove that elections were fair.
José Ignacio Hernández, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic International Studies, said the statement could divide the leadership of the Maduro regime.
“Maduro will dismiss the report,” Mr. Hernández said, “but Maduro invited the Carter Center and the defense minister had praised the labor of the Carter Center.”
José R. Cárdenas, a former Bush administration official who follows Venezuela closely, said the statement was important, because the Carter Center had defended Venezuela’s electoral system after a 2004 referendum failed to oust Hugo Chávez,Mr. Maduro’s predecessor as president and his longtime mentor.
“They have now done a 180,” Mr. Cardenas said.
While there were other election observers in Venezuela, they are friendly to Mr. Maduro and not considered impartial.
The United Nations sent a panel of experts to Venezuela, but it was not an official observation mission. The panel will draft a report that will not be made public until it is delivered to the U.N. secretary general, an agency spokeswoman said.
The Carter Center’s report came after human rights groups, government officials and family members of victims said that 16 people, including one soldier, had died amid protests. Penal Forum, a human rights organization in Caracas, tallied 11 deaths, but The New York Times identified at least four more cases at a Caracas morgue.
“They are young people who were simply protesting,’’ said Alfredo Romero, president of Criminal Forum. “That in a single day there have been 11 murders in demonstrations is definitely an alarming figure.”
On Wednesday, opposition leaders said security forces had surrounded the Argentine Embassy, where several of Ms. Machado’s campaign employees with arrest warrants against them have been holed up for months.
The Venezuelan government has threatened to arrest opposition leaders after accusing them of inciting violence. Jorge RodrĂguez, Mr. Maduro’s campaign chief and the national assembly leader said he hoped that Ms. Machado and Mr. González would be arrested soon.
“I am not only referring to MarĂa Corina Machado, who has to go to jail,” Mr. RodrĂguez said on Tuesday. “I am referring to Edmundo González Urrutia, because he is the head of the fascist conspiracy that they are trying to impose in Venezuela.”
The attorney general’s office in Venezuela did not respond to a request for comment about whether any criminal charges were being pursued.
Genevieve Glatsky contributed reporting from Bogotá, Colombia.
#ProDemocracy #Organization #Denounces #Venezuelas #Election