Shops and public transport across Venezuela were closed on Wednesday (31), with tensions over a disputed presidential election, rumors of more opposition arrests and sporadic violence keeping many people at home.
Socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has ruled the country since 2013, was proclaimed the winner of Sunday’s vote by the electoral council. But the opposition says the tally of about 90 percent of the vote shows that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, received more than twice the support of Maduro.
As the contest entered its third day, amid growing calls for greater transparency, the government insisted that it had failed to produce comprehensive vote totals at the polling station level due to interference in the system originating in North Macedonia that was responsible for the prolonged delay, without providing any evidence to support this.
The US-based Carter Center, one of the few independent observers allowed to observe the election, said in a statement on Tuesday (030) that the election “cannot be considered democratic”. The Carter Center said the process was biased in favor of Maduro and that there were flaws throughout the process, describing the failure of the electoral authority to publish disaggregated results as a “serious violation”.
In comments broadcast on state television on Wednesday, Maduro said he rejected all threats, including the possibility of new U.S. sanctions.
Maduro has vowed his socialist party is ready to release all vote counts and said he has asked the top court to force opposition parties to do the same.
On Monday morning, Venezuela’s electoral authority – which the opposition accuses of being under Maduro’s influence – announced that he had won another term, attracting 51% of the vote, with a seven-point margin over González.
But shortly thereafter, Venezuela’s main opposition alliance launched a website with detailed ballot-box-level vote counts, covering counts from the vast majority of the country’s 30,000 electronic voting machines, including scans of ballot-count printouts.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, the website showed opposition candidate González with 67% of the vote to Maduro’s 30%, representing nearly 82% of polling station data.
Reuters could not verify the authenticity of each individual count. Independent exit polls, however, showed a similar margin of victory for Gonzalez.
Meanwhile, international pressure has increased on the government to release the full results, including from regional heavyweights such as the United States and Brazil.
The dispute has led to deadly and widespread protests that Maduro and his allies in the military have denounced as a coup attempt. Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday it had received reports of 20 deaths in post-election demonstrations.
Source: CNN Brasil
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