2024-08-19 22:57:58
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) “failed to comply” with basic measures of “transparency and integrity” in the July 28 presidential election, which the opposition denounces as a fraud, concludes a preliminary report by a UN panel of experts published on Tuesday.
The CNE “failed to comply with the basic transparency and integrity measures that are essential for the holding of credible elections. It also failed to follow national legal and regulatory provisions, and all established deadlines were not met,” says the report by the four electoral specialists deployed in the South American country by the United Nations.
The CNE, without showing the electoral records since then, proclaimed President Nicolás Maduro re-elected for a third six-year term with 52% of the votes. But the opposition led by María Corina Machado claims victory for its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, and has denounced fraud.
The results also sparked protests that left 25 dead, 192 injured and more than 2,400 arrested.
“The announcement of the result of an election without the publication of its details or the disclosure of tabulated results to the candidates is unprecedented in contemporary democratic elections,” added the UN experts, who were in Venezuela from late June to August 2.
The document notes that Venezuelan authorities “cooperated and supported the deployment of the panel,” but that after the polls closed, “unfortunately, and despite a request sent by verbal note, they were unable to meet with the CNE Board of Directors before their departure.”
Questioning criticism from the Carter Center and before the publication of the UN panel’s report, Venezuelan parliament speaker Jorge Rodriguez, a Chavista leader, proposed reforming the law so that “never again” foreign envoys participate as observers or come to the country “to take a position” during the country’s elections.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed concern on Tuesday about arbitrary arrests in Venezuela during post-election protests and the disproportionate use of force that fuels the “climate of fear” since the presidential election.
