Venezuela's Electoral Council Condemns New US Sanctions, Publication of Detailed Election Results Still Pending

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) issued a statement following the most recent round of illegal sanctions announced by the United States government against Venezuela, in particular against electoral, judiciary, and security officials. The statement, however, did not provide any insight regarding the announcement of the detailed electoral results of the July 28 presidential elections that, according to the electoral body’s previous statement, was going to be issued by August 28, as ordered by the Venezuelan Supreme Court.

In its statement, the CNE condemned the US government’s targeting of Venezuelan public servants. It said that none of the ill-intentioned opinions of organizations financed by Washington “has been able to tarnish the impeccable reputation built over the years by the National Electoral Council of Venezuela,” without mentioning the controversial delay in releasing the poll-by-poll electoral results that may negatively affect the solidity of the democratic foundation of the Bolivarian Revolution.

The statement highlighted that the amounts of money that said organizations have received from the US government to feed reports against Venezuela have only served to pay for campaigns on social media platforms, adding that no illegal sanction against the CNE has deviated the institution from its constitutional mandate. “The Electoral Power of Venezuela is now firm, united, and stronger than ever,” it read.

Finally, the statement demanded that the United States government not get involved in the internal affairs of Venezuela and urged it to focus on US internal affairs.

An unofficial translation of the full statement is below:

The Electoral Power of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela repudiates the infamous act of interference committed by the government of the United States of America, with which it attempts to single out and intimidate a group of Venezuelan public servants, including the rector of the National Electoral Council, Rosalba Gil Pacheco and her secretary, Dr. Antonio José Meneses Rodríguez, through illegal unilateral coercive measures, promoted by groups of criminals linked to terrorism, drug trafficking and a series of other crimes, who have allied themselves with the US government and other corrupt structures to finance operations against the Venezuelan electoral system and its members.

The United States of America has one of the most pathetic and obsolete electoral systems on the planet, incapable of providing certainty in its results, leaving many doubts in its elections, as has been evident on countless occasions. For this reason, the United States government lacks the moral authority to evaluate and give opinions on electoral issues anywhere, and much less in Venezuela, where there is an electoral system of the highest global standards.

None of the ill-intentioned opinions of the organizations financed by the United States that act as mafias extorting our democracy has been able to tarnish the impeccable reputation built over the years by the National Electoral Council of Venezuela.

The amounts of money that they have received from the government of the United States of America to feed the reports against Venezuela have only served to pay for campaigns on social media platforms and fill the pockets of the mobsters who direct these terrorist and destabilizing acts against our beloved homeland Venezuela.

Trying to blackmail the members of the National Electoral Council is a vile maneuver that has failed before. No illegal sanction against the institution has removed it from its constitutional mandate. The Electoral Power of Venezuela is today firm, united and stronger than ever, with the capacity to confront any vile attack against its integrity, as was proven by over 1,300 observers and partners of the successful electoral process of July 28, which reflected an unquestionable result, guaranteeing today’s peace and political stability, which is the best proof that can be shown to the world.

We demand the United States government not to get involved in the internal affairs of the Venezuelan Electoral Power and we urge it to focus on the internal affairs of its own country. We remind it that Venezuela is a free, sovereign and independent country that only obeys the will of the people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Caracas, September 13, 2024

CNE To Publish Results from Venezuela’s July 28 Election

Poll-by-poll electoral results
Since the Bolivarian Revolution, the Venezuelan electoral system has been modernized to the point that it is 100% automatized, with 17 audits carried out before, during, and after each electoral process. The electronic vote is backed up with a paper ballot receipt deposited in each polling station to verify that the voting record issued by the voting machine (polling station) coincides with the total voting ballots in the boxes. Over 50% of the polling stations conduct this audit at the end of each electoral process.

Orinoco Tribune staff interviewed its editor, Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza, to provide more clarity about the functioning of the CNE results and the delay in presenting the electoral results.

In general, since the strengthening of the electoral system by Chavismo, between 12 and 48 hours after each election, Venezuelans are able to see the results of the elections by state, municipality, parish, voting center, and polling station on the CNE website. This has not been the case in the 2024 presidential elections due to a massive and unprecedented cyberattack aimed at damaging the electoral and corrupting the electoral system. However, the attack only managed to delay the transmission of votes.

“This delay was enough for far-right Venezuelan opposition operators to claim fraud, as expected by most political analysts inside and outside Venezuela, and launch a pre-defined plan of presenting ‘alternate’ electoral results on several websites based in the United States, with alleged voting records issued by the voting machines [polling stations] after the closing of the electoral process,” said Rodríguez-Espinoza.

Before the elections, Venezuelan far-right opposition politicians publicly complained about their organizational weakness in providing electoral witnesses in each polling station. “However, at the launch of their fraud claims, they changed their claims of having all the voting records, going initially from 30% to 70% and ultimately to 100%, despite many opposition-leaning analysts explaining that they did not have the organizational capability to achieve this,” Rodríguez-Espinoza added.

According to many analysts, the far-right opposition strategy, supported by the US government, served as the excuse to launch a media propaganda operation claiming electoral fraud, demanding the release of all of the voting records or paper trails of the votes, although these are never published. The strategy also included questioning the CNE’s first electoral result bulletin with 80% of the votes counted, where President Nicolás Maduro was announced as the winner with 51.2% of the votes against 44.2% obtained by the far-right candidate Edmundo González.

In its second electoral bulletin, the CNE announced that with 96.87% of the votes counted, President Maduro was re-elected with 51.9%, while González had received 43.1% of the votes.

“Venezuelan far-right opposition has been playing with terms helped by mainstream media and social media platforms with the intention of expanding the reach of its unsupported fraud claims,” the Orinoco Tribune editor explained. “They talk about actas that are the paper reports issued by the voting machines at the end of the election indicating the number of votes each candidate received in that polling station [voting machine]. This voting record has to be signed by the polling station operators, who are selected from the public by the CNE weeks before the election, and by the witnesses of each political party with the organizational strength to do so. Currently, the only political party with the grassroots organization capable of doing this in Venezuela is the [ruling] United Socialist Party of Venezuela [PSUV].”

“These voting records or actas are not the poll-by-poll electoral results that Venezuelans are accustomed to seeing after each election and that are the backbone of the Chavista democracy, because this way the voters can verify that the electoral results in a polling station are the same that were publicly counted at the end of the electoral process, as stipulated by the Venezuelan electoral regulations,” he added.

He further added that the “CNE’s delay in announcing the electoral results as requested by the Supreme Court may have a negative impact on the solidity of the Venezuelan Chavista democracy. Neither the CNE nor any relevant Venezuelan authority has yet explained to the Venezuelan people the reasons for this delay, which might even have legal implications.”

“I have no doubt about the victory of President Maduro,” he continued. “It is coherent with the historical Chavista vote; it is coherent with the level of PSUV organization; and it is also coherent with the claims of opposition experts about the negative effects of a low turnout in the opposition vote performance. The release of the poll-by-poll electoral results will not stop the US regime change campaign, but it will certainly revive the confidence that millions of Chavistas had in the CNE. The CNE’s standing has been severely affected by the questionable handling of this and other decisions by its authorities.”

Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff

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