MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

International community underlines lack of transparency in Venezuelan elections

The Carter Center is yet to publish a final report on the Venezuelan 2024 elections

The international community keeps harboring doubts as to the authenticity of the rsults for the Venezuelan presidential elections announced in Caracas by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on Sunday. A joint statement was issued Wednesday in this regard by the foreign ministers of the seven countries making up the G7, arguably the strongest nations from an economic viewpoint which also enforce democratic principles while the Carter Center, one of the observers participating in the process, admitted it could not be considered “democratic.”

 “We, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Unitcd Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the EU, express our solidarity with the
people of Venezuela, who peacefully exercised their right to vote in large numbers on July 28 to shape the future of their country,” the G7 document read.

“Independent domestic and international observers' reports have raised serious concerns about the announced results of Venezuela 's Presidential elections and about the way the electoral
process was conducted, especially regarding the iregularities and lack of transparency in the final tabulation of the votes. It is of paramount importance that the result reflects the will of the Venezuelan people,” the ministers underlined.

“We call on relevant representatives to publish the detailed electoral results in full transparency and we ask electoral representatives to immediately share all information with the opposition and independent observees,” they went on.

“As the process unfolds, we call for maximum restraint in the country and for a peaceful, democratic and Venezuelan-led solution,” they concluded.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which participated as an observer, admitted that the process “did not conform” to international parameters and standards of electoral integrity, and therefore “cannot be considered democratic.”

”The Carter Center cannot verify or corroborate the authenticity of the results of the presidential election declared by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE),“ the organization expressed in a communiqué.

The organization highlighted that the CNE had not released the results of each voting table separately, which ”constitutes a serious violation of electoral principles.“ Hence, the electoral process ”has not met international standards of integrity in any of its relevant stages and has violated numerous precepts of the national legislation itself.“

Venezuela's elections ”took place in an environment of restricted freedoms to the detriment of political actors, civil society organizations and the media,“ the Carter Center also noted. In addition, CNE authorities ”showed partiality in favor of the ruling party and against opposition candidacies,“ it also found. Updating the voters' registry ”was carried out with numerous inconveniences“, such as ”very short deadlines, relatively few registration places and a minimal public information and diffusion campaign,“ particularly in the case of Venezuelan national living abroad, the organization also stressed.

Moreover, the registration of parties and candidates ”did not meet international standards“ and, in recent years, the opposition parties ”have suffered judicial interventions to the detriment of their most socially and politically recognized leaders in order to benefit people related to the government, influencing the conformation of their candidacies.“

To make matters worse, the registration of the main opposition forces ”was subject to the discretion of the electoral authorities who adopted decisions without respecting basic legal principles“ and the electoral campaign developed ”with a notable imbalance in favor of the Government in all areas,“ thus favoring the ruling PSUV of incumbent President Nicolás Maduro, who even had access to public resources such as vehicles and TV and radio air time, coupled with the intimidation to ”people who provided services“ to anti-Chavist politicians.

Despite this scenario, voting went ahead peacefully on July 28 amid ”governmental partisan checkpoints in the vicinity of“ polling stations. The Carter Center team of 17 experts ”verified the willingness of Venezuelan citizens to participate in a democratic electoral process and demonstrated their civic commitment as table members, party witnesses and observers.“ But ”these efforts were belittled by the CNE's lack of transparency in the dissemination of results.”

The Carter Center is yet to publish a final report on the Venezuelan 2024 elections.